Simeone: “Champions? You never know, maybe in an irregular year…”

Diego Pablo Simeone was the guest of El Hormiguero, from Antena 3. The Argentine spoke about the documentary Living match by match, from Prime Video, and analyzed his career as a coach and the current moment at Atlético.

How is Simeone when he loses?

I try to make you feel that it doesn’t hurt me first, but inside, if you don’t know how to understand and suffer victory, you can’t enjoy victory. It doesn’t matter if you draw or lose. It is not the same as winning. At home it shows, I talk a lot with my face. But then you have to get back together and the next day be back with the players.

Do you watch more than football?

Golf, American football… anything green. I like Argentine soccer. The other day I was watching a Second Division match and my wife asked me… It makes me get closer to my roots and I enjoy it.

Is Cholismo like a religion?

I don’t identify it that way. I’m with a club managed in a great way and a group of guys who helped us grow and sustain it. To convey an idea, a feeling and from there, getting to know the club and the fans and valuing the best that my footballers could give me, get the best out of each one.

How do you earn the respect of the players?

I tried to be spontaneous, real, they have to believe you. I was a footballer and I had credible and not credible coaches. You respect and admire the first ones, like a son to a father.

And how do you manage the roosters in the locker room?

I listen, it is the way of learning and driving. We choose the car, but they do the road. We want something strong to be generated in the group. In so many years we will have made a lot of mistakes, but it is part of the way. We look for players who have a good connection with what you want. The rebels, the ones who get angry I love. They are the ones that end up giving you much more. A lot has happened, they seem like protesters but then they give a lot. It is a way of giving and receiving.

If the coach and the captain do not agree, is it a problem?

Bad. The technician has to agree with the majority. We must try to make them understand that we want to seek the best, which is to win.

And do you know the players in their state of mind?

We manage emotions. They are good footballers if they are at Atlético, but managing emotions is not easy. There is a day that you squeeze, others that better count to 15…

And what is the style to deliver bad news?

I eat doctors. Bluntly. “You are going to die.” That’s the best. Don’t lie to me, tell me the truth. I try to go like this. The other day, Savic wasn’t here to play and he’s very important, but we didn’t see him in good shape. He was eager and excited and we told him ‘you’re not going to play, I can’t see you, we’ll continue training and for the next one’.

And can you be friends with the players?

It is a complex word. To be able to occupy the places well, it happened to me with the greats who left, you have to know that I am the coach and they are the players and you have to respect it. Knowing that, you can tell me everything. I never get mad, seriously. I am conciliatory, even if you don’t believe me.

Do not contemplate winning without suffering?

We would have to go where Real Madrid and Barcelona are not. With them it is impossible. You have to win them…

And the Champions is crossed.

Well, you never know. Perhaps in the years that the irregular path seems to be seen, the surprise of the Champions League may appear.

Ramos’ goal in Lisbon hurt…

They were better and the goal was a great goal. We wanted to put Tiago in place, knowing that the ball would go there, but there are things that cannot be solved. Ramos is extraordinary and that goal hurt us a lot.

He speaks admiringly of you.

I admire him too. He is a football man, very bloody and has given his life to Madrid.

This year they are far from the leader…

We became champions in ’96, after twenty-odd years, then in 2014 and now in 2021. It’s not easy for Atleti to become champions. You have to improve it and for that you need time.

He was about to sign for Real Madrid…

I have selective memory. I remember the important things and not this one.

Is it worse to nail a taco or to have it nailed to you?

Worse is nailing it to a partner, for sure. You screwed up and you know you screwed up. But not all of us are perfect. It happened to me later against Barça. When I did that I was the worst in the world and it’s true that I was wrong and I accepted it, but when they hit me, they asked me and I said “it’s football”.

And how about Jesús Gil?

we know it. I loved him very much and we always got along well. In the first year it was complicated, we didn’t win and Jesús was very tough and exploded against whoever he was. One day I read that he made a very harsh criticism of me and I replied: “I don’t lack respect, not even my father”. Then we played against Zaragoza, he approached me and said: “Diego, listen to his statements. But now go to the field and prove it.”

And with Maradona?

Diego was admired and loved, it is very difficult to find a colleague who says something negative about him. I am left with a thousand memories. He laughed at some of the things he criticized me for. I like to get to score, to the area. I passed Maradona and he scolded me. One day I shot from 30 meters and he asked me “but have you ever scored a goal from there? So what are you shooting for?”

And what was it like off the field?

It is very difficult to be Maradona. But he was very affectionate, very companionable. He always defended the contracts, the prizes so that we were all involved. The memory for those of us who live with him is that we do not believe that he is dead.

Will you muster up the courage to walk away before they take away?

I am guided by what I feel energetically. If I feel that I have energy, that I can grow, that I am strong, I will go forward. When I have felt that I have no energy or that things are not going the way I want, nothing happens, life goes on.

And do you feel prepared…?

No, I’m not going to answer you.

Do you have a favorite player in the locker room?

This is like children, there is always a tendency to be with one, but by characteristics. For love you love them all equally, because they all end up giving you.