Diego Simeone: The miracle worker

When Atletico Madrid were knocked out in the Champions League quarter-finals by Ajax Amsterdam in 1997, midfielder Diego Simeone could scarcely have imagined it would be 17 years before they reached the last eight again.
Almost two decades later, Simeone is now coaching the La Liga side and recent dominant 4-1 home victory against seven-times winners AC Milan, which put Atletico through to the quarter-finals 5-1 on aggregate, was the latest evidence he has moulded his unfancied squad into genuine European contenders.
Atletico striker David Villa describes him as part Luis Aragones, part Pep Guardiola. What El Guaje means is that El Cholo has the motivational mastery of the fiery Castilian and the tactical aptitude of the obsessive-compulsive Catalan. While Simeone is so often lionized for the former, the latter is largely ignored.
No coach has won more La Liga matches than Simeone since his Atleti debut in 2012. Four months after taking over a broke and broken Atletico, he won the Europa League final against an Athletic Bilbao side led by modern soccer’s most influential tactician, Marcelo Bielsa.
Simeone went on to end Atleti’s interminable winless run against Madrid. And he did it against Mourinho, in a cup final, at the Bernabeu. In a show of confidence and cholismo, the Argentine publicly announced his starting XI the day before the final, while admitting Madrid was the better side. In a sense, his out-Mou’d Mou, who believes matches start and end with a press conference.
After 14 years without a derby win, the Colchoneros made it two in a row at the Bernabeu. The second came against Carlo Ancelotti.  In the lead-up to game day, Carletto praised Atletico’s positioning, concentration and character. He said, “What Simeone was as a player, Atletico Madrid are as a team.” He would know.
Trying to find arguments in favour of Simeone’s inclusion is easy. Finding arguments against it is near impossible. Some cynics may say that any team with Radamel Falcao in their ranks is capable of upsetting the odds, but such a reductive argument overlooks Simeone’s role in converting Diego Costa from a man that Atletico Madrid looked likely to offload to anyone that would take him, to a key player in the second half of both their league and cup campaigns. Costa has since gone one step further in Falcao’s absence, and is currently the form striker in La Liga ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. ‘Simeone has been key in my evolution’, the Brazilian admits.
Atletico Madrid are showing a more developed, multi-faceted playing style that was hinted at towards the end of their last campaign, and has now come to full fruition. No longer are they ‘only’ destroyers that play on the counter-attack. Now, they play with swagger, creativity and vigour, building their game around the passing talent of Koke (another of Simeone’s revelations), the intelligence of David Villa, and the dribbling ability of Arda Turan and the finishing of Costa.
Simeone will be on the shortlist for the award next year that much I do not doubt. The problem however is that the people making these decisions are supposed to be at the forefront of the game, not blinded by star power over concrete achievements, and they should be the first to anticipate a changing of the guard, not the last.