Why Arsenal Target Jose Gimenez Is Priceless to Atletico Madrid
Talk about Uruguay’s 2014 World Cup campaign and it isn’t long before you’re discussing what Luis Suarez did to Giorgio Chiellini, but that summer in Brazil was also a coming of age for one of the country’s young talents.
Jose Gimenez—at the time a rookie centre-back who had only played one La Liga game for Atletico Madrid having signed the previous summer—was a virtual unknown even in his own country at the time of the tournament. However, he’d done enough to earn a place in coach Oscar Tabarez’s squad after impressing for the under-20s and in his brief experience in domestic football with Danubio.
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The Uruguayans had been tipped to do well in Brazil, but then came Gimenez’s chance following a shock 3-1 defeat to Costa Rica in their opening game—a match in which they had led at half-time.
A red card for Maxi Pereira and an injury to veteran Diego Lugano—who had played as though he was about to get dropped anyway—meant that Tabarez had little choice but to pick the then-19-year-old for the do-or-die group game against England in Sao Paulo, and what followed was a vastly accomplished display from the teenager.
Up against forward Daniel Sturridge—who was supported by an attacking trio of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck and Raheem Sterling—Gimenez stood tall, defending valiantly alongside Diego Godin as Suarez scored twice to knock England out and keep his team alive in the tournament.
Inevitably, all the post-match headlines were about the former Liverpool forward, but for Atletico fans, there was a different topic of conversation.
After all, they had barely seen this youngster who had so impressively partnered the much-loved Godin—the foundation upon which the club’s freshly secured La Liga title success had just been built.
Gimenez had little to do with that unexpected championship victory, playing just one league game in place of the absent Miranda as Atletico beat Almeria 4-2 in September 2013.
Perhaps cheering on his team-mates from the sidelines and being part of the celebrations stirred something within the teenager, because after returning from the World Cup—where he played impressively in the victory over Italy and the round-of-16 defeat to Colombia—there seemed to be a new steel and intensity to his game.
Playing alongside Godin for club and country clearly helped, and as Miranda suffered injuries throughout the 2014/15 campaign, Gimenez was a more regular sight in starting lineups. He appeared 28 times for the first team across league and cup—a run that inadvertently led to the Brazilian leaving Atleti to join Inter Milan at the end of that season.
The Brazilian was effectively replaced by Stefan Savic, and the Gimenez that we’ve seen since the Montenegrin’s arrival last summer is a different animal to the player who was just breaking through around the time of the last World Cup.
Whereas Godin and Miranda were the established pair back then—with Gimenez the eager youngster willing to bide his time—now the Uruguayan will see himself as Godin’s first-choice partner, but he can’t get too comfortable with that status as Savic has shown he’s more than willing to take it away from him.
Injury problems persisted throughout Gimenez’s 2015/16 season—perhaps as a root cause of the sometimes overly eager way in which the 21-year-old plays the game—but he still managed 37 appearances in all competitions in contrast to Savic’s 24.
One of the Montenegrin’s games came in the Champions League final at the end of May, though, when the former Manchester City centre-back was hugely impressive as Atletico rode a Real Madrid storm and were unlucky not to win the match.
In addition to that, he was preferred to Gimenez as Godin’s partner for the opening game of the season against Alaves on Sunday, a huge hint from Diego Simeone to the youngster that he needs to get his fitness levels up to speed if he wants to be considered as a consistent starter.
And it is against the backdrop of all of this that rumours started to surface about apparent interest from Arsenal, with the Gunners going through their seemingly annual transfer panic at the closure of every summer window and targeting a new centre-back.
As with most elite-level transfers this summer, the fees mentioned have been astronomical, with a £40 million deal reported by Adam Crafton for MailOnline and a huge £56 million quoted by Marca (h/t Jack Staplehurst of the Daily Express).
The latter fee matches the Uruguayan’s buyout clause, but even though no one is realistically expecting a club or manager to fork out that much for him anyway—especially not the prudent Arsene Wenger—there should be no desire on Atletico’s part to let him go.
It might be that Gimenez has another season of alternating with Savic as Godin’s first-choice partner, but that isn’t what the club will be thinking about when they reject interest in him from north London or elsewhere.
They’ll be thinking about the rapid rate of improvement he’s shown since that World Cup game against England, and they’ll be thinking that—at his age—he has an almost-perfect footballing environment in which to improve.
Atletico are, by their—or rather, Simeone’s—nature, a defensive side who often rely on their centre-backs, both in attacking and defensive situations.
In training drills and match scenarios, Gimenez is receiving the best grounding that a young defender could possibly want, as he’s learning from Godin and Simeone every day of his professional life.
His compatriot is nine years older than him at 30, and there will come a moment when Godin has to leave Atletico, just as Miranda did before him, but the education Gimenez is receiving by his side right now makes that changing of the guard less daunting.
Of course, a sale to Arsenal would bank Atletico plenty of money in the short term, but the club are working hard to shake off a reputation as an outfit that the so-called “bigger” clubs can push around, and Gimenez could save the club money in the long term.
The Gimenez we see now is on the way to becoming one of the best centre-backs in world football, and as such, he deserves patience and a chance to develop his game outside of the limelight.
That might well include missing out on the odd game here and there, but that is what Savic should be for. The Montenegrin seems destined for an Atletico career of just being a bit-part player, filling in when needed, but that seems to be his level.
Gimenez is more than that, and he has looked it ever since he burst onto the scene in that World Cup fixture in Sao Paulo.
The Uruguayan’s future is with his current club, and no amount of money should change that right now.
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