Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone has referred to his three-year contract extension, keeping him at the club until 2027, as ‘very important’, after overcoming his most difficult trial at the club.
“It was a very important renewal, the energy, the desire to continue building more is there. It is a project to continue building,” he told Cadena SER.
🎙️| Diego Simeone: “Andrea Berta and Miguel Ángel know the gift (signing) I would like to have. I have asked for it, especially because we lost Lemar [for the season].” pic.twitter.com/MXGNQOAOUb
— Atletico Universe (@atletiuniverse) November 15, 2023
El Cholo admitted that last season was the closest he has come to doubting his work at Atletico, which has been remarkable for most of the last 12 years.
“Not continuing, no, but obviously there was a moment a year ago. In November of last year, the team did not respond, we could not find the ways for them to do so, as we had always done. And there you stop and say ‘this has never happened to me and it may be because I have been here for many years’. There were two ways to deal with it, press the accelerator even if there were curves, which is what we did, or not. We accelerated and today we continue on the same route.”
Simeone was also asked if he feared the fans losing confidence in him or the owner, Miguel Angel Gil Marin.
“That the players lost it, the important thing is always the players. There is a limit that when you pass it, there is no return. What would make me doubt myself, and say this far I go, is if I saw that the team cannot go any further.”
When Atletico Madrid entered the World Cup break last season in fifth place, and a long way off contention for La Liga, it felt as close as it ever has to the end of his glorious Atletico reign. It is unusual and refreshing to hear a manager, let alone one of Simeone’s status, admit that for a time, he was out of answers. The revival in 2023 has been a thrilling watch for Colchoneros, and out of that adversity, some are saying their best ever football under Simeone has arrived.
