Diego Simeone Wants Calm after Second Consecutive Draw

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Diego Simeone has requested his Atletico Madrid players to remain calm after the second consecutive draw at the start of the new La Liga season.


Following a 1-1 draw in the opening game of the season against Deportivo Alavés, the club only returned with a point from the trip to face Leganés. Club legend Fernando Torres missed a great opportunity to give the away team three points, which would also have marked their first win of the season. As it is, Atletico Madrid are still searching for a first victory of the campaign and they are already four points behind rivals Real Madrid.

The club’s lack of attacking power has been highlighted in recent years following the departure of Diego Costa for £32 million. Atletico have been very keen on bringing the Spaniard back to the Vicente Calderon, but Chelsea blocked any possible move after failing to get Romelu Lukaku from Everton. Even though there were signs of Torres returning to form towards the end of last season, his form seems to have nosedived once again. The game against Leganés was the second appearance from the bench for the striker, but he was only brought in for the last 30 minutes.
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NEW LIVERPOOL SIGNING WIJNALDUM STILL CHERISHES FERNANDO TORRES

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Liverpool latest signing Georginio Wijnaldum says he still cherishes Fernando Torres and has held on to the shirt of the player even after so many years.

The player made the revelation recently after signing to play for the club ahead of the coming season. He becomes the seventh signing of coach Jurgen Klopp as he refurbishes the team to face the fierce competition in the Premier League.

Far back in 2007, the new signing was a 16-year old trying to find his feet at Feyenoord. He was an unused substitute when they played against Liverpool with Fernando Torres in his prime. The game turned brutal when the referee blew the whistle for the game to be over after the stalemate of 1-1 was not broken in regular time. It was a pre season friendly and the former Newcastle player got the shirt of the former Kop hero in the midst of the chaos. Continue reading “NEW LIVERPOOL SIGNING WIJNALDUM STILL CHERISHES FERNANDO TORRES” →

SIMEONE WANTS CONSISTENCY

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Diego Simeone has revealed that he has denied big transfer fees for a number of his boys as he doesn’t want to break the core-group he has built.

Simeone also admitted his mistake of making an emotional statement last month that he was going to have a look at the future options.

According to Simeone, he was just being emotional and not being ambitious while he said so.

Simeone’s added everything to his CV at Atletico apart from the European Cup which he has missed out at twice including last May and the disappointment of that was perhaps too much to keep inside.

Talking to Argentinean media, Simeone said, “Well, it was probably the emotions of that particular moment. I would put it down to that. You must always have the defeats in your memory because that’s what helps you put in that extra inch in the future preparations.”

“I can’t see any side in the world, apart from two-three sides which are blessed with better resources, to be as good as us. For us, improvement is a regular going process which will never stop.”

“We are very, very keen on making sure that we are always stronger than the past. There have been big-cash offers for the sale of many of the boys, but, we don’t mind taking a bit of a financial load so that the team’s core-group doesn’t get broken and all the vital people stay.”

One of the vital people at the moment for Atletico is Antoine Griezmann and they have done well to get him to ink an extension a couple of days back.

The Frenchman has been a hot property for the past 12 months and the Euro has not diminished his image a single bit.

Fernando Torres has thanked his former boss Rafa Benitez

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Fernando Torres has thanked his former boss Rafa Benitez for helping him achieve a great level in his career.

There were several doubters about Torres’ ability as a striker when he was at Atletico Madrid. After all, the striker did not average even a goal every other game during his time at the Spanish club. However, Benitez put his faith on the youngster and signed him from Atletico for around £ 20 million in 2007. Torres went on to become one of the greatest strikers to have played for Liverpool in a short period of four years.

The striker went on to join clubs like Chelsea and AC Milan before now returning to Atletico – the place where he started his career. Torres still remains confident of reclaiming the glory days despite not having scored freely enough in the last six years. Ever since the 2010 World Cup, he has struggled with lack of form and fitness. Diego Simeone appeared to have briefly revived his form when he joined from Milan on an 18-month loan spell. However, that form has deserted him and Torres finds himself with just four goals in 28 appearances this season even though most of them have come as a substitute. Continue reading “Fernando Torres has thanked his former boss Rafa Benitez” →

There’s no decision being made by Atletico management as yet regarding Fernando Torres

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There’s no decision being made by Atletico management as yet regarding Fernando Torres.

Torres is presently at Vicente Calderon on loan and is quite keen to continue, but, because of his patchy form, it’s not certain whether the club would want to extend its association with the star player.

Torres has struggled on his comeback to Atletico as he has been able to net just 5 times in 35 games in La Liga.

The Atletico chairman, Mr. Cerezo, had very nice things to say when he talked about Torres in an interview last month, but, he refused to assure anything as far as the striker’s stay is concerned.

In the words of Cerezo, “Fernando’s one of the most loved players at our club and that love would always remain there.”

“We’ll sit and talk once the loan expires. The manager has to make the call. Fernando is very, very popular and that’s surely a bit of an advantage for him.”

Cerezo also completely rubbished the speculations that the position of Diego Simeone is under the pump after the unhappiness of the supporters over some of his recent substitutions including the one in the Sporting Gijon game which even resulted in the boos. Continue reading “There’s no decision being made by Atletico management as yet regarding Fernando Torres” →

Diego Simeone has already begun the mind games for the upcoming La Liga campaign

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Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone has already begun the mind games for the upcoming La Liga campaign after stating that archrivals Real Madrid are now ready to take over the league title following the appointment of Rafa Benitez.

Even though the Spaniard has won only a handful of league titles in his career, the club have backed him to succeed Carlo Ancelotti in a successful manner. Real have so far been silent in this transfer window and have not made any headline grabbing signings. This is in sharp contrast to Atletico, who have made substantial changes to the squad and this includes the departure of Mario Mandzukic.

Simeone has been widely praised for this role in helping Atletico become the first team outside the duo of Real Madrid and Barcelona to have won the league title in the last decade. However, his team are not seen as favourites for the upcoming campaign. Reigning champions Barcelona are expected to improve even further despite not being able to sign new players until January. They have already made some key additions to the squad like Atletico midfielder Arda Turan. Despite this, the desire to win the league title after a long gap will push Madrid next season according to Simeone. Continue reading “Diego Simeone has already begun the mind games for the upcoming La Liga campaign” →

Diego Simeone claims that he is always a worried man

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Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone claims that he is always a worried man towards the end of a transfer window. This is due to the possibility of losing players at the last moment, which would leave the club at a huge disadvantage in terms of squad strength. Simeone claims that he has managed to assemble the squad over the summer in such a way that it is at 99% close to completion. He expects 100% confidence in his squad once the window closes on August 31. There are still uncertainties surrounding some players at Atletico. They have already sold some key names like Turan and Mario Mandzukic.

However, Atletico have equally brought a number of names to the Vicente Calderon. Among them, the most important of the likes of Filipe Luis and Jackson Martinez. Both will provide excellent quality along with experience that will be necessary in order to win the league title once again. Atletico failure to put up any sort of a title defence has led to the club splashing out on several players. It remains to be seen if they can once again upset the odds by overthrowing both Barcelona and Real Madrid at the same time. Continue reading “Diego Simeone claims that he is always a worried man” →

Fernando Torres was all praise for Lionel Messi for the surreal goal

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Fernando Torres was all praise for Lionel Messi for the surreal goal that the Argentinean came up with in the recent Barcelona versus Atletico game.

Messi’s goal helped Barca win 1-0 and with that, they were able to clinch the top tier title there in Spain.

According to Torres, neither of the two teams was dominating for an hour or so in that game. It was completely hanging in balance, but, all of a sudden from nowhere, there came a Lionel Messi special and it all tilted in the favour of Barca.

Torres was quoted as saying, “I think we had been having a pretty good time in the game until Leo magically found the net and gave them the lead. Things changed from there onwards.”

“When you play Barca, it’s important to take the opportunities which we failed to do and that proved to be quite hurtful at the end. However, if you ask me, I would say the way we played overall, it wasn’t that bad.”

When asked about his experience on returning to Atletico where he spent many years during his boyhood learning the art of the game, the striker said, “Playing in Liga is always nice because the competition is so intense and we have done well as a team of late, whether you talk about the last season or this one, there’s been consistency in our performance.” Continue reading “Fernando Torres was all praise for Lionel Messi for the surreal goal” →