Diego Simeone Eyed for Atletico Madrid Stay Amid Jose Mourinho, Chelsea Rumours

Atletico Madrid director of football Jose Luis Caminero hopes manager Diego Simeone will stay with the club for a decade amid rumours Chelsea are interested in bringing him to the Premier League and current Blues manager Jose Mourinho could be his replacement in Madrid.

During a recent interview with Guillem Balague of Yahoo Sports, Caminero hailed Simeone for the tremendous impact he's had on the club before he was asked about the prospect of him leaving.

In response, he said:

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It’s better not to imagine it. Luckily he has a contract until 2020 – hopefully it [Simeone & Atletico] will last another 10 years and we’ll be very happy with that.

You never know, but at the end of the day in Spain it’s unusual for a coach to stick with a long-term project. It shows that all parties are happy.

I see Diego being here, achieving the objectives that he and the club are planning for. In 5 years time we’ll have a new stadium with a large capacity. We’re also 5th in the UEFA Club rankings and we’d like to improve on that. I think the club is on a very good path and we have to stay on it.

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Simeone took the job as manager of Atletico in 2011 at a time when the club's fortunes were just starting to turn around. Former manager Quique Sanchez Flores had guided the club to the Europa League title, but Simeone pushed the Atleti to new heights on the domestic level and in the Champions League.

He guided the club to its first La Liga title in nearly 20 years, as well as the Champions League final. Under Simeone, Atletico have gone from a good La Liga side to one of Spain's top teams, nearly on par with rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

From a tactical and motivational standpoint, Simeone has been fantastic, but perhaps his biggest accomplishment is the continued success with a team that isn't afraid to sell its biggest stars. The likes of Arda Turan, Diego Costa and Radamel Falcao have all left the club in the past few years, but it hardly impacted Atletico's success.

With Chelsea suffering a dreadful start to the 2015-16 campaign, it didn't take long for rumours linking Simeone with a move to west London to emerge. The Daily Mirror's Simon Mullock believes he's on the Blues' list of candidates, despite a £15 million buy-out clause, and Fichajes (h/t Metro's Mark Brus) even claims Mourinho could move the other way and end up with Atletico.

A swap seems next to impossible. As explained by Bleacher Report's Karl Matchett, it just wouldn't make any sense for the Atleti:

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This is the first time Mourinho has really had to recover from a prolonged bad spell, and he has no previous form to guide him back to the top; it's something new he needs to discover for himself. It would be a gamble for Atleti to take on the Portuguese boss, even with his prior history of winning, immediately following this downturn in form at Chelsea, without him having first bounced back and taken the Blues back up the table.

All of that doesn't even mention, of course, the loss of continuity that will come whenever Simeone does depart the scene—and the players who may follow him out the door.

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Per MailOnline's Pete Jenson, Simeone doesn't speak English very well, which would be a problem at Chelsea. Foreign managers have succeeded in the Premier League by using translators, but Simeone's biggest strength lies in his ability to motivate players. For that, he needs to be able to talk himself, not rely on someone else to do it for him.

The language barrier wouldn't be a deal-breaker, but it provides a stumbling block for the hypothetical move.

As of right now, Mourinho is still in charge of Chelsea, and while he could be out of a job soon if he can't right the ship, his players continue to back their manager every chance they get.

Branislav Ivanovic became the latest on Wednesday, telling reporters the Blues' slump is the players' fault, not Mourinho's, via Simon Johnson of the London Evening Standard.  

Simeone seems committed to the Atletico project, and if he does leave Madrid, it might be to coach the Argentinian national team. He has spoken of his desire to manage Argentina in the past, even saying he's confident the job will be offered to him one day in an interview with FIFA.

The Albiceleste have suffered a dreadful start to the qualification campaign for the 2018 World Cup, and if those struggles persist, there could be an opportunity for Simeone to swoop in and take the job. Until that happens, he's likely to stay in Madrid.

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