4 Atletico Madrid Players of the Last 10 Years Who Never Won over the Fans

Atletico Madrid have been consistently improving over the past decade. The team went from being Real Madrid's whipping boys to only being defeated by them once in eight clashes last season.

Diego Simeone has taken the team to the next level, and under him they have won the Europa League, UEFA Super Cup, Supercopa de Espana, Copa del Rey and, best of all, La Liga.

It means fans' expectations for players have changed a little, but most important on the banks of the Manzanares is effort.

Atletico have always been the capital's underdogs, and so as long as the players are playing their guts out, the fans don't ask for too much more.

There have been players such as Radamel Falcao, Diego Costa and Raul Garcia who struggled at first but eventually turned things around and became heroes in red and white.

But here are four players who never managed to get the fans totally onside.

Mateja Kezman

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Perhaps Atletico Madrid should have known they were getting a dud in Mateja Kezman.

The striker had been brilliant with Arjen Robben at PSV Eindhoven, but when they moved to Chelsea, where the Dutch winger flew, the Serbian striker fell.

After a poor 2004-05 season with the Blues, it was time for Kezman to move on, and he soon found himself at Atletico Madrid.

The striker managed just 10 goals in 33 appearances in all competitions and left the fans unimpressed.

There was not much uproar when he was sold to Fenerbahce at the end of the 2005-06 campaign.

Kezman struggled with a knee injury in the first half of his only campaign at the Vicente Calderon, and Atletico Madrid finished 10th.

Florent Sinama Pongolle

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Another Premier League striker to arrive at Atletico Madrid in the last decade was ex-Liverpool man Florent Sinama Pongolle.

And like Mateja Kezman, he proved to be a flop and someone the fans didn't take to.

The French striker was unable to depose either Diego Forlan or Sergio Aguero, and after he signed in July 2008, he spent a year-and-a-half with the capital club before moving on.

He went to Sporting Lisbon, where his career continued to splutter, and he's never got fully back on track.

In the plus column, his versatility at Atletico Madrid allowed him to play on the right whenever Maxi Rodriguez was unavailable, but his five goals in 40 matches showed why Atletico fans never felt much confidence in him.

Juan Manuel Jurado

Juan Manuel Serrano/Associated Press

Juan Manuel Jurado is an example of a player who was quite good for his side but not loved by the fans.

The midfielder played a lot of games for Atleti, and in 2009-10, he helped them reach the finals of both the Copa del Rey and the UEFA Europa League, winning the latter.

And yet, despite all this, he wasn't he loved by the Rojiblanco fans.

It boils down to his background. The player was a product of the Real Madrid academy, featuring 85 times for the reserve side and on five occasions for the first team.

He was loaned to Mallorca while at Atletico, and he impressed and returned to help out his side.

When Atletico sold him to Schalke on August 31, 2010, transfer deadline day, the fans weren't happy.

However, that was as much to do with the lack of time to find a replacement as pining for the midfielder.

Another player whose Real Madrid link was not forgiven was Raul Jimenez.

The Mexican striker revealed he was a Blancos supporter, and when he struggled to score in an Atletico shirt, it meant the fans gave him short shrift.

Ahead of this season, he was packed off to play for Benfica.

Sergio Asenjo

Victor R. Caivano/Associated Press

Atletico Madrid brought in goalkeeper Sergio Asenjo in July 2009 and made him their first-choice stopper.

However, the Spaniard wanted to play for his country's U20 team at the World Cup that summer.

It took place in August, and then-manager Abel Resino was worried about losing several men for the start of the league season.

As explained in AS (h/t Goal), the Atletico coach considered going to "the Court of Arbitration for Sport if Spain insist on taking Asenjo with them to the World Cup."

In the end, Asenjo went, and the fans were not happy about it.

After coming back he made some bad mistakes in the Rojiblanco net, and David De Gea, another youngster at the club at the time, soon replaced him.

Asenjo had not requested to be left out of the squad as Barcelona's Bojan Krkic had.

With De Gea thriving, Asenjo's chance at the club was done and dusted. He went on loan to Malaga and then Villarreal, where he signed permanently in 2014.