Miguel Angel Gil Marin concedes it is critical for Diego Simeone to stay at Atletico Madrid as “he perfectly represents our values”.
Simeone is believed to be considering his future at Atleti after the club’s second Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid in three seasons last month, and Gil Marin admitted the Coach was paramount to the operation of Los Colchoneros.
“Diego perfectly represents the values that we try to adopt as a club: effort, enthusiasm, hunger and hard work,” the CEO was quoted as saying by Marca.
“It’s important for the club to have a person, like him, who always raises our level of demand, which can be seen in our level of efficiency by being fourth in the UEFA ranking but 15th in terms of revenue, although we must be responsible and understand that large imbalances can lead to major disasters. My responsibility is to take risks but keep them under control.
“Everyone at the club is ambitious and demanding. We want to compete at the highest level and win, but we must consider whether we can compete with the biggest teams permanently with our income.
“We must ask ourselves which club we want to be and which club we are. They are two very different things. I won’t forget the cases of Valencia and Deportivo [La Coruna] when they wanted to continue competing with the big clubs after they won League titles, and the result was almost bankruptcy for them both.
“Everyone who joins [Atleti] has to fit into our group and style of play, but it’s becoming increasingly difficult to find players with enough talent and who are able to adapt to our level of demand and style of play.
“Not all talented players can adapt to a model in which values such as effort, humility and solidarity take precedence. We seek to carry out the least possible changes because the base of the team is consolidated.”
