Atlético fell to Levante and lost a great opportunity to subtract three points from Betis, third in the table and four points ahead of the Madrid team. The situation is complicated for a team that won the league title a few months ago. And it is a new situation for Simeone and his coaching staff. In the absence of fourteen games, the team seems touched and not only in relation to the game.
The great objective of the Madrid club at the beginning of each season is to get into Champions positions, finish in the top four. Atlético’s board of directors knows that in order to maintain the current status, the maximum continental club competition must be played every year. There is no other. Only in this way will he be able to maintain the level of a squad in which there are players like Oblak, João Félix, Griezmann, De Paul, Lemar, Correa…
At Atlético they understand that Real Madrid and Sevilla will occupy the first two places. Barcelona has made a great effort to strengthen itself and will also finish in the top three. And there are Betis, Real Sociedad, Villarreal… Any of them seems to be in a better moment than Atlético. And on Saturday Osasuna awaits in Pamplona. While the rivals give positive signs, the rojiblanco team seems without spark, with its players far from a high competitive level.
Not entering the Champions League would be a severe economic blow for the Madrid entity. And that economic disaster would be wiped away by having to sell one of the main players in the squad. Atlético has said no to all the offers that have been arriving for its stars, but without the Champions League the situation would be very different. In the 2019-20 season, the club earned around 95 million. Last season they added about 80 and this year they have about 60 million. Very important figures that Atlético would stop receiving in the case of not entering the top four.
Atlético, on the other hand, renewed Simeone until 2024, with full confidence in having a winning cycle. The goal was for Atlético to be in the fight for all the titles. Then, you can win them or not, but the challenge was to fight them all. This atypical season is destroying all the objectives of the entity. In the club they know that there is still time to react. What happened at the end of the 2019-20 season can serve as an example.