Atlético faces a summer with little movement in its squad after the great success of the league title. New faces will arrive to reinforce the weakened positions with exits, Rodrigo de Paul will join the project and the great premise is to maintain the spine.
If players like Saúl, Vitolo or Grbic can say goodbye, those who say goodbye today apparently definitively from the club are Lucas Torreira and Moussa Dembélé. The two players were incorporated during the 2020-21 season on loan until this Tuesday, June 30, when their commitment to the mattress team ends and they return to Arsenal and Olympique de Lyon respectively. The Uruguayan and the Frenchman have left their mark on the athletic title, although they have been secondary players for Simeone.
In the case of Torreira, its incorporation on the last market day (at the same time that Thomas went the other way) gave him an initial role that later declined with the evolution of Lemar and Herrera and the signing of Kondogbia. The Uruguayan ended up disputing 722 minutes, scoring a goal in El Sadar against Osasuna and remaining as the eighteenth player of the squad in participation. Of course, he had moments in which he was important and his role mainly in the games with the score in favor in which Cholo wanted close the result by reinforcing the midfield with a very physical player. Torreira said goodbye to Atlético before starting the Copa América and his future seems far from the Wanda Metropolitano. Also from Arsenal, the club to which he belongs, since it has not counted for Arteta. The 25-year-old will be looking for a new team.
For his part Dembélé would be delighted to continue wearing the red and white shirt, his behavior has been faultless, but he has barely been able to show his worth. He signed in January to replace Diego Costa when he was still limping from an arm injury and when he was able to start getting into Simeone's plans suffered the coronavirus. Back, a fainting spell during training set off alarms and kept him out until the final stage. Simeone turned to the French in matches with the score againstEither to accompany Suárez or to give a new air to the attack point. In total, he played only 140 minutes and the purchase clause of almost 35 million is totally unfeasible.
Atlético needs a nine to accompany Luis Suárez and his search does not stop. The characteristics of Dembélé liked to be complementary to those of the Uruguayan, with a different profile to run into space and hang balls to the area. The market is combed in search of another battering ram to compete for the season's top scorer with 21 goals in the league and to have a replacement in the event that Suárez suffer any mishap or need a break. At 34, he left a fantastic rojiblanco first year, but it is vital to have another striker in the squad. However, Dembélé's option does not seem to be in the head among those alternatives. For the moment, what is clear is that the two players are leaving Atlético as league champions after their transfers full of emotions and where they had to enjoy the rojiblanca fans from outside the stadiums, feeling their affection in the celebration of the qualification.