PETE JENSON: Atletico Madrid are going NOWHERE in the Champions League with their last-16 hopes hanging by a thread… they can’t score and £113m star man Joao Felix’s relationship with Diego Simeone looks IRREPARABLE as he sulks on the bench
- Atletico must win their last two group games to reach Champions League last 16
- Right now it seems unlikely the Spanish club will progress in the competition
- Star man Joao Felix is slumped on the bench after a fall-out with Diego Simeone
- The £113m attacker is not even pretending to mask their fractured relationship
The best thing that happened to Diego Simone on Wednesday night occurred about 11pm local time when Barcelona’s game against Inter Milan ended 3-3 and Xavi put his tin hat on to face the media. The heat was off the Atletico coach, but not for long.
Barça’s Champions League plight is bad, but Atletico’s is not much better. They can qualify by winning their final two games (against Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen and against Porto) but will the team that has only managed two goals in four European games this season manage to do that?
And will the marriage of inconvenience between Simeone and Joao Felix, rapidly sliding towards inevitable divorce, further hinder their attempts?
Diego Simeone appears to have had a complete relationship breakdown with Joao Felix
Simeone has been the Atletico coach for a decade, twice winning the league and twice taking them to the Champions League final.
Joao Felix cost them €127million (£113m) three years ago – more than any other player in the club’s history. But they don’t get along and it’s no longer something that the two make too much effort trying to hide.
Failing to score in 180 minutes against Club Brugge with 21 shots in the second game on Wednesday best illustrates the biggest problem that Atletico have, so why are they trying to solve it with their most talented forward watching from the bench?
No wonder Felix threw his bib down in disgust when it became clear he wasn’t getting a single minute against Brugge.
Felix cost Atletico £113m but relationship with Simeone is no secret and divorce is inevitable
Atletico ook incredibly goal-shy and failed to score once from 21 shots against Club Brugge
‘I didn’t see anything so I’ve got nothing to say about it,’ said Simeone after the game.
He had sent on Yannick Carrasco, Alvaro Morata, Thiago Cunha plus midfielders Rodrigo de Paul and Axel Witsel. But there was no time for Joao.
Atletico president Enrique Cerezo had claimed pre-match that the Portugal international, 23 next month, was still adapting. That’s a stretch for anyone to believe with the player in his third season.
The relationship between Simeone and his would-be star player has never been what it should be.
In their first season working together there were moments when the coach would bark something from the bench and Felix would appear not to want to hear his manager.
Simeone knows hopes of reaching the knockout stages of the Champions League are slim
After being left on the bench on Wednesday, Felix liked a tweet criticising Simeone’s tactics
Post-match on Wednesday night the player ‘liked’ a tweet from Benfica fan Rui Costa de Azelte asking him to go back to Benfica where he ‘is respected’. He later ‘unliked’ the message but the damage was done.
Not for the first time this season he was the only player to go straight down the tunnel after the game as the rest of his team-mates went out into the centre circle to applaud the supporters.
This should be Simeone and Felix against the world on behalf of Atletico Madrid, instead it’s player against coach and there are no winners, at least not inside the club.
The supporters and the rest of the players are split as to whom to side with. There have been a few whistles from home supporters and there is desperation from some seniors in the dressing room at the attitude of the forward.
He has gone 11 games without scoring this season so Simeone can easily explain why he has left him out of the last four games.
The Portuguese international is cutting a frustrated figure and fans are split siding with him
He thrived at Benfica and questions are being asked of Simeone as to why he can’t unlock him
But not everyone blames the player. He was only 19 at Benfica but managed 20 goals and 11 assists in his first and only season. Why did it work for him there and not now?
Expectant Atletico Madrid supporters celebrated the signing as the moment their team would take a step forward – now they had a player to make a difference producing moments of magic that would see them compete at home and abroad and not just with the blood and sweat recipe that had worked in the past.
But Felix has not emerged as the leader of this team. The leader is still Simeone and with goals so hard to come by they are going nowhere in Europe’s biggest competition.
