Atlético Madrid have attacked the transfer market this summer, with Julian Álvarez next in line to join from Manchester City in a big-money move. So, is another title charge on the cards?
The fee Atlético Madrid are apparently willing to pay to sign Julian Álvarez can be construed in a couple of ways.
On the one hand, it’s a staggering bit of business that shows Atlético’s ambition. They had already turned heads this summer by signing Alexander Sørloth and Robin Le Normand, while a deal for Conor Gallagher looks likely, too. They’ve been linked with even more summer signings but we’ll leave it there for now. You get the point. Atlético Madrid mean business.
On the other hand, the Álvarez fee – reportedly up to €95 million – is a clear demonstration of how far behind Atlético feel they have fallen from truly competing against Real Madrid, Barcelona and even further afield, in Europe’s biggest competition, the UEFA Champions League. Maybe more importantly, the ground Spain’s chasing pack – Athletic Club, Real Sociedad and Girona – have all made up on Atlético in recent years is even more worrying.
Desperate times call for eye-watering transfer fees.
This is the first chance they have had to show their ambition in a number of years. Some of the biggest earners in the squad – Álvaro Morata, Saúl Ñíguez, Memphis Depay, Stefan Savic and Mario Hermoso – left the club this summer, freeing up plenty in wages and with some even fetching a transfer fee. Money from previous sales like Matheus Cunha, Renan Lodi and Yannick Carrasco has also been deposited into their bank account. They will also sell Samu Omorodion to Chelsea and will likely offload João Félix, at last, before the transfer market closes.
This isn’t evolution. It’s a revolution, and possibly the first by Atlético since Diego Simeone took over in 2011. In 2019, they renovated their squad after selling Antoine Griezmann to Barcelona, Lucas Hernández to Bayern Munich and Rodri to Manchester City. But back then, the turnover felt reactive; the natural course a selling club takes when the bigger boys come knocking.
This summer, they have signed Le Normand, one of the most consistent central defenders in La Liga in his prime and fresh off Euro 2024 success. They have signed La Liga’s second-highest scorer last season in Sørloth. Gallagher too, who Chelsea were willing to pay in line with Moisés Caicedo and Enzo Fernández, will be a big signing. If that wasn’t enough, forcing Manchester City’s hand with an offer they couldn’t refuse certainly ends any discussion of how Atlético are looking to solve a problem that has been some years in the making.
An Ageing Squad
Atlético’s average squad age needed attention and it was a problem, naturally, that was getting worse by the season. Only one player aged 24 or younger (Samuel Lino) played more than 50% of minutes in the league last season. They had the second-oldest average starting eleven in La Liga last season (29 years and 232 days) behind only Rayo Vallecano.
Simeone’s record of making the Champions League in every single season since he took over meant expectations had risen so high that big risks could no longer be tolerated. Giving young players minutes isn’t a luxury you can afford when you’re standing over a cliff with nothing but air between you and the icy cold waters of fifth place and Europa League football below.
That meant a staleness had settled over Atlético Madrid’s transfer business in recent years, too.
You haven’t needed a calendar to know the date during summer in Madrid for the last few years. That could be done by keeping track of Atlético’s transfer news. The seemingly perpetual Morata departure stories began in early June as madrileños started to daydream about the coastal towns further south and the smell of suncream.
João Félix’s return to training would generally come around early-to-mid July as the dog days of summer intensified. You’d have the inevitable scramble for cut-price deals and free transfers at the end of the summer before ultimately being left underwhelmed and sad as September arrived.
But this summer has been different.
To be fair, Le Normand, Sørloth and Gallagher as a summer transfer package would have been exciting on its own. The push for Álvarez, a marquee signing who has won everything and was good enough to convince Pep Guardiola of his worth, pushes this summer’s dealings into another galaxy.
What Will Julian Álvarez’s Role Be?
So, where does Álvarez fit into all of this?
In Atlético’s most recent friendlies, they have experimented with a 3-4-3 in possession, and that makes sense as Simeone continues to move in the direction of a more possession-based, dynamic approach.
After losing Lucas Hernández, Simeone simply couldn’t find a left-back who could defend and attack in equal measure like the French defender. He finally accepted he would have to move to five at the back with attacking wing-backs. They play in a 5-3-2 now with Griezmann sometimes dropping into midfield to play as a fourth midfielder.
That can leave the main striker isolated and also places a big burden on Griezmann to both link play, create chances and finish them, all the while making sure his defensive duties are taken care of.
Playing with Álvarez means you add another attacker without necessarily compromising defensively. He can play anywhere in attacking midfield and he can also lead the line.
Not everyone fits into the mould of a Diego Simeone player and ‘Cholo’ isn’t going to sacrifice defensive solidity for the sake of playing another attacker. Luckily enough, Álvarez was born with the Griezmann gene of being both supremely talented and willing to work really hard.
He is a triple threat in that he can create and score while upholding his end of the bargain without the ball – so many players signed by Atlético have only ticked one or two of those boxes and failed under Simeone. Álvarez is the total package and players like that command significant transfer fees.
With Álvarez in the team, fellow new signing Sørloth, who scored 23 times last season, and Griezmann, could potentially become one of the best attacking tridents in Europe.
It’s bold and brave from Atlético but they still have work to do.
What Will the New Atlético Madrid Look Like?
Soon enough, Atlético will have signed a new centre-back, a new midfielder and two new strikers this summer. Le Normand will step right in to play at centre-back beside Axel Witsel, who played 2,784 minutes in the league last season – the most by an outfielder. They also lost Hermoso and Stefan Savic, who were the second and third most-used centre-backs last season. Hermoso featured in all four of Atlético’s most-used centre-back partnerships and is yet to be replaced.
César Azpilicueta and Jose Giménez will step in and fight for minutes, as will Ilias Kostis, an academy graduate has been trialled at left centre-back during pre-season. They will likely bring in another defender, with Aymeric Laporte and Feyenoord’s Dávid Hancko linked as Hermoso’s replacement.
Koke is 32 now and has been at the heart of Atlético’s team for over a decade. He organises the press and controls the rhythm but in this new-look Atlético, he might be edged out for more dynamic players such as Rodrigo de Paul, Barrios, Gallagher and the returning Thomas Lemar. Nobody controls games like Koke does, though, and Simeone prefers a double pivot to help his captain – and the 3-4-3 solves this problem.
The wing-backs will be Samuel Lino, a player poised for a breakout season, and Marcos Llorente, who has supplanted Nahuel Molina on the right-hand side.
And then in attack, Griezmann, Sørloth and Álvarez will likely be the preferred lineup depending on the task at hand and the opponent. But it gives Simeone options he didn’t previously have and an attacking threat to make the mouth water.
When Atlético last won the league – the pandemic-blighted 2020-21 season – they went out in the first game and beat Granada 6-1 with new signing Luis Suárez coming off the bench to score a brace. Obviously, they had to back that up by competing in 37 more matches, but there was something from the start of that season that felt different.
We haven’t even seen Atlético take to the field yet this season. We will have to wait until Monday 19 August for that when they travel to play Villarreal in La Liga. But already, something feels very different about this season.
They are showing ambition, with a focus on youth in the summer; out with the old, in with the new. And maybe, above all else, there appears to have been a realisation that they couldn’t live in purgatory forever.
It might not work, but if it does, we could be about to witness something spectacular.
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