In Atletico's Diego Simeone, Chelsea may well have found their Jose Mourinho upgrade

 
Impressive double: Ateltico are on the brink of the Spanish title and the Champions League
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Tom Collomosse1 May 2014

Roman Abramovich dreams of watching a Chelsea team who play like Pep Guardiola’s best Barcelona teams, yet under Jose Mourinho and others, they have been successful using a far more prosaic brand of football.

If the Russian billionaire one day accepts, however, that he may never see Barcelona in blue shirts, then he might have noticed that the perfect heir to Jose Mourinho was standing in the opposite dug-out.

Diego Simeone is everything a modern Chelsea manager should be. Pragmatic, charismatic, shrewd, uncompromising in his pursuit of victory. His players are completely committed to his tactical ideas and carry them out exactly. Remind you of anyone?

Atletico are far from stylish, but they defend superbly, they are physically imposing and they run for their lives. With the foundations so solid, Simeone’s team know that it will require only an occasional moment of excellence from Diego Costa or Arda Turan to win them the game. The parts make a formidable whole.

Chelsea v Atletico Madrid player ratings

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This is precisely the formula that Mourinho has used to such effect as coach of FC Porto, Chelsea (the first time) and Internazionale. Deploying it, Simeone has taken his team to the brink of arguably the most impressive double in club football: the Spanish title and the Champions League. For a club who sold Falcao, one of the world’s finest centre-forwards, to Monaco last summer, it is quite an achievement.

Mourinho’s second spell at Stamford Bridge will surely carry on for a little while yet, but when it comes to an end, could Abramovich make a better appointment than Simeone? Clubs have identities and Chelsea’s is clear. An unbreakable spirit, allied to strength and tactical intelligence, has carried them far. Simeone is the perfect figurehead for such qualities.

Who knows where Simeone will go in the summer. Despite his success, there is not an obvious move to excite him more than the current challenge. Barcelona would surely not take him and while Monaco would pay the Argentine whatever he wanted, that is surely a step down from Atletico. His style does not fit that of Real Madrid or Manchester United, while Serie A is no longer attractive to the world’s top coaches. Paris St Germain appear resolved to stick with Laurent Blanc.

So, a couple more years at Atletico and then succeed Mourinho at Stamford Bridge? It is not much of a leap to imagine that, and here is another possibility.

Since sacking Mourinho in 2007, Abramovich spent the next seven years searching for a superior manager who would bring trophies while playing spectacular football. He never found one, and so returned to the man he had dismissed in the first place.

Last night, as goals from Adrian Lopez, Diego Costa – from the penalty spot – and Arda Turan shattered Mourinho’s dreams of winning the Champions League with a third club, perhaps a light went on in the minds of some Chelsea directors. Perhaps, in Simeone, they have finally found their Mourinho upgrade.

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