The away crowd, with around 1,500 of Atletico’s most ardent supporters, sang: “You don’t deserve this jersey.”The only one of the players who stayed on the field and listened to the unpleasant truth was Saul Niguez, raised in the red and white club. One of the symbols of Diego Simeone’s Atletico.❗️ Saúl Ñíguez was the only player that went to the fans after the loss. The rest of the players went straight to the locker room.[@PedroFullanaSER] pic.twitter.com/kZXBtnQban— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) November 1, 2022 He was the only one who mustered the courage to receive the well-deserved criticism. The fans then started applauding him and chanting for him to bring back the rest of his teammates who had fled to the locker room. That didn’t happen…The harrowing scene at the end of their dreadful Champions League campaign perfectly encapsulates this entire season of Atletico Madrid. And for the first time, the question is being asked clearly and loudly – has Cholo finished his mission in the club?Madman Simeone comes crashing down after the maddest ten minutes at Wanda MetropolitanoFor the first time since the Argentine coach took over, Atletico finished last in their group and won’t play UCL or UEL football after New Year’s Eve. His roses are not blooming even in the domestic championship. Cadiz recently put as many as three in the back of their net… Their games are, to put it mildly, eye-hurting. His Atletico was never a symbol of beautiful football, sure. Still, there was some defensive art, a cocktail of Argentine combativeness and Spanish cynicism, men’s football with a knife in the teeth.CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Atletico are out of Europe!Now there is no more. Los Colchoneros are woeful in duels, they are slow, they make mistakes in passing, and no longer have the audacity. That same audacity is what their rivals feared. Even the almighty Oblak doesn’t make as many saves as he used to before because they concede much more shots on goal than ever before. And from that defensive instability come all the other problems like a fruitless attack. Atletico have conceded a goal in five of their six matches in the Champions League this season! They won only five out of 18 points and none away from home. In a group with Porto, Brugges and Leverkusen?!For instance, in Simeone’s first four seasons, Atletico had 28 wins and nine losses in 48 games in Europe. In the next six seasons, they played 47 European games and recorded only 17 wins and 16 losses – a big difference that is.##EDITORS_CHOICE##Although the season started a long time ago and many games have been played, Atletico still seem to be wandering and have neither an established identity as a team nor a style of play. Even that would not be strange if we were not talking about a group in which a good part of the players have been together for a long time, and the coach has been there for more than a decade. Moreover, this only seems to be a continuation of the decline that started last season. Then they got through in the group with Milan and Porto, but this time they couldn’t.##NAJAVA_MECA_6778788##The game in which Atletico’s defence allows only a few or even no chances to the rival no longer exists. Therefore, even the attack, which is used to working and running a lot, fails to switch to plan B because it never existed with Simeone.And perhaps they just reached the expiry date. It seems that the engines have run out of power and that the team’s pillars are on the verge of collapsing. Koke has collected 558 games for Atletico, Griezmann 310, Correa 346, Oblak 369, Savic 245, Saul 355, Carrasco 219, Jimenez 261… On the other hand, some of the newcomers, those youngsters, just didn’t fit into Cholo’s Spartan doctrine. That’s why Joao Felix goes bowling and jokes after that excruciating failure against Leverkusen, Reguillon has a party with a girl after Cadiz… They simply don’t see the world and football with the same eyes as Cholo’s long-standing army. Simply, they’re not Diego Costa, Godin, Juanfran or Filipe Luis.Atletico refused do sell Felix for 100 millionSimeone fails to find new Spartans. You will notice that offensive-oriented players are more difficult to fit in with Simeone. Some, like Mandzukic, Diogo Jota, Raul Jimenez or Theo Hernandez, he didn’t want or couldn’t use. Now Joao Felix, Mateus Cunha, and Rodrigo de Paul are going that way.Players are coming and going, money is being spent, and the results are getting worse. Every relegation from Europe is a serious financial blow for a club like Atletico. And investments will be necessary. ##NAJAVA_MECA_6778853##Each subsequent failure threatens to be irreparable. And Simeone is still the coach with the highest salary in the world. Considering what he brought to the club and how he built it, he deserves that money. And he deserves more trust and credit from the fans because he is the most successful coach in the club’s history.But there will have to be life after Cholo. Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or who knows when. His Sparta is slowly collapsing and becoming vulnerable from all sides. Just as the famous Greek polis collapsed and some new kingdoms came, maybe it’s time for Atletico to try a new policy and leader.
