Congratulations and well done Atlético Madrid. About time a different team won It...It was getting as boring as Scottish Prem.
They won't because, like Dortmund, their best players will be picked off by those already seated and cemented in the hierarchy. They may have a few years of being around but it won't sustain because they don't have the money to. To establish yourself as a permanent fixture you have to have the money there. This will be another example of "you need to work your way up through xyz" being exposed for the bullshit it is.
Dortmund could afford to let Lewandowski bugger off for free instead of getting a fee for him so they can't be that badly off. They weren't on the radar til they made an improvement but now they attract top players. And Atletico lose players all the time (Falcao last summer, Aguero before that, Torres before that) yet there they are on top of the table. It can be done. Valencia challenged til Benitez left. It'll be hard though.
There you go, without the money to sustain yourselves these will always be temporary challenges, it'll always revert to type.
The same Peter Lim who tried to buy us a few years back, be interesting to see how that pans out. Congratulations Atletico, richly deserved .
You're talking about two rare instances in leagues that struggle to compete amongst their European counterparts. I'm talking about clubs in major leagues being able to compete, on a regular basis, with the teams within that league that always will. It has nothing to do with what I'm on about.
We're talking about domestic football though, so it is irrelevant how the league compares to others. Within the league the problems teams have are just as relevant in Luxembourg as they are in Spain. The reverse can happen too. Dortmund nearly went bust less than a decade ago and now they're a powerhouse. Being a City fan you should know better than most that the landscape of football changes. I support Liverpool, who were every bit as dominant in the 80s as Barcelona/Real are nowadays, and I'm still waiting for things to "revert to type"...
But the point I'm making is about teams trying to break the dominance of the top leagues and the powerful and historic clubs that sit at the top. So in that case it is irrelevant. Do you think it'll take Rangers long to be back to the old two horse race, despite being relegated? No, so that only enhances my point. Liverpool have still been competitive for honours most seasons and have competed for titles, even winning a champions league. You've just had to take a back seat to the other member of the hierarchy in this country, like the rest of us. The point is you can't sustain consistent honour challenges without the finances to match these teams, otherwise your success will always be temporary.
Firstly a huge congratulations to Atletico Madrid, what they have done will hopefully serve as a model for other teams in Spanish football that despite being at a spending disadvantage, heart, work-rate and giving a manager time to implement his philosophy and transfers on a squad can allow you to compete. What Simeone has done at the club is remarkable and I hope like Klopp he can stay for a few more years yet and continue to improve the team and keep them up there challenging Madrid and Barca. I am extremely disappointed at the attitude of the Spanish Federation however, for not allowing them to have the trophy presentation after the match because the chairman was away on holiday, ridiculous decision, surely another board member could do it instead? I bet if it were Barca or Madrid in pole position for the title going into the final round of matches they would have bend over backwards to make sure a presentation could be held. Interesting to see that the Peter Lim takeover of Valencia has now indeed gone through, I have a feeling that Lim wouldn't have done this unless certain provisions and conditions were laid down with the Spanish FA regarding a more equal distribution of TV money. I think this and Atletico's title win might just help Spanish football a lot in the long term as if the Federation can agree a new tv deal considerably larger than the current one and then encourage Barca and Madrid to split it equally like the Premier League and Serie A, we could start to see the likes of Atletico and Valencia and perhaps one or two other clubs be a lot more competitive than currently as it would enable them to keep hold of their better players and also add a few higher calibre players each year. Barca and Real would still win the league most years, but we certainly wouldn't see 25 point gaps between them and the remaining teams under a more equal tv deal. Atletico might lose players in the summer, but given how well they have replaced strikers who have left like Torres, Aguero, Falcao etc coupled with better financial management of the club in recent times and a move to a new 70k stadium in 2015/16 on the horizon (which they can sell the naming rights to further reduce their debts), I don't think they will be a mere flash in the pan, they will certainly challenge the big two for the title once every 4 years or so imo.
