Grading Atletico Madrid on Their 2016 Summer Transfer Window Business
That sound you heard echoing all across Europe on Wednesday was the transfer window “slamming shut” in its usual dramatic fashion, but how can Atletico Madrid reflect on their summer of business?
Diego Simeone’s side have got off to a poor start in LaLiga, with successive draws against newly promoted Alaves and Leganes, which has left them four points adrift of their two main rivals in the division, and now the window has shut, the real business has begun and improvement is vital.
Will some of the summer additions come to the fore over the campaign, though? And have they let the right players go?
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The Ins
Everyone knew Atletico were going to bring in a forward in this window, with the club effectively short of one ever since the sale of Jackson Martinez to China in the winter.
Fernando Torres turned his loan deal into a permanent one after his ill-fated Milan contract expired, but that was always going to happen, and Simeone turned to Kevin Gameiro as his big-name addition, ending the Frenchman’s three years at Sevilla in which he had remarkably won the Europa League three times.
The former Lorient and Paris Saint-Germain forward might not be the most famous of names, and he wasn’t selected for his country’s Euro 2016 squad in the summer, but there is hope he can buy into Simeone’s team ethic and strike up a good partnership with fellow Frenchman Antoine Griezmann, who needs extra support this season as Atletico go for goals.
Gameiro endured a frustrating competitive debut before netting a late penalty—which he thought was the winner—against Alaves, and it might take a while before we see the best of him in a red and white shirt.
Elsewhere Nicolas Gaitan's arrival attracted headlines, with the Argentinian finally getting a switch to a major European side that many had expected for a while.
He left Benfica having scored 11 goals in all competitions last season, but after coming off the bench in Atletico’s first two games of the season, he is going to have to rely on Simeone trusting him if he is to find a place in the starting lineup.
Should, as it is hoped, Simeone soon change his midfield structure, Gameiro could become a key player.
The only other headline arrival sees Croatian full-back Sime Vrsaljko arrive from Sassuolo, and he’s likely to come into contention once the Champions League starts and the matches come thick and fast.
The Outs
The summer has seen an exercise in squad-trimming from Atletico, with thankfully none of Simeone’s key players spirited away to bigger names.
The biggest permanent departure saw the forward Borja Baston—who only played one game for the first team as he left on five loan moves—end his association with the club and join Swansea City, in what was a club-record deal for the Welsh outfit.
Leo Baptistao is another forward who has left after several loan moves, joining Espanyol, and there were a couple of defenders who departed for the Championship in England, with Jesus Gamez joining Newcastle and Silvio leaving for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
All in all, though, they are moves that hardly upset the apple cart at the Vicente Calderon, with loan deals again the key driver of the outgoing business.
An army of talented youngsters have all left on temporary deals elsewhere, with the headline switches seeing Colombian forward Rafael Santos Borre move to Villarreal in what looks to be a fascinating deal for both parties, as well as the midfielder Oliver Torres somewhat disappointingly go on a second loan to Porto, with many Atletico fans wishing he’d have stayed.
Diogo Jota has also joined Porto for the season, and his progress will be closely watched having only arrived from Portuguese football at the back end of last season, while Sevilla have taken both Matias Kranevitter and Luciano Vietto for the year.
Of those two moves, Vietto’s is the most interesting, with the young Argentinian forward seemingly losing out to Angel Correa in a straight fight for a slot in Simeone’s squad.
Vietto scored twice on his LaLiga debut for Sevilla in a remarkable 6-4 win over Espanyol, and his progress at the club over the campaign is sure to be fascinating to watch, especially if Gameiro struggles and Atletico have difficulty scoring goals.
Kranevitter’s switch is perhaps less surprising given the army of central midfielders in the Atletico squad, while Javier Manquillo has embarked on what is now becoming a yearly loan move by joining Premier League club Sunderland following similar temporary spells at Liverpool and Marseille in the last two seasons.
The What Might Have Beens
Every club has transfer opportunities that are explored and not quite completed in each and every window, and it is no different with Atletico, with two big-name forwards not quite secured.
Despite the rumours, it still came as something of a surprise to hear Chelsea’s Diego Costa admit he wanted a move back to the club this summer, only for the deal to fail to materialise.
As Sky Sports reported, quoting AS, Costa said: "Now I'm at Chelsea, I'm happy there and I've started the season with them. I hope Atletico do well this season like last year and win titles. I wanted to go back, I won't lie about it."
Refreshing honesty, then, but given how much of a fans' favourite Costa is at the Calderon, that honesty might not reflect well on Gameiro—the player who was basically bought in Costa’s place.
There was also interest in Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata, who was having to deal with “five or six phone calls a day” from clubs interested in acquiring his services, according to an article by Marca's Hugo Cerezo and Miguel Angel Lara, adapted by Marc Mayo.
Atletico’s long-standing rivalry with Real Madrid might have meant any attempt to sign the forward was given short shrift, but it is another indication of just which types of players Simeone was looking at in what was eventually a fairly quiet window for Atletico.
The Verdict
Has it been enough, though?
Atletico’s slow start to the season makes it easy to look at the transfer business mentioned above and state it has been a poor summer for the club, but that is more to do with how Simeone has set them up to start the campaign and not the players who have come in and gone out.
Right now the squad isn’t overly different to last season’s, with Gameiro adding extra goals, Gaitan adding some creativity from midfield and Vrsaljko adding some cover at the back.
It’s all just "OK," though.
Atletico have shown they don’t quite have the financial or historical clout to attract the biggest names, and that is fine, but fans might just be left wondering if the squad looks a little stale.
Things will improve from the poor start to the season once the new signings get up to speed, but you can’t exactly get blown away by the summer Simeone has had.
Atletico Madrid’s Transfer Window Grade: C
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