Mateu Alemany’s arrival at Atlético de Madrid in October saw the club hire a true replacement at last for longtime sporting director Andrea Berta. Alemany’s hire was made after it became evident in the season’s
early weeks that chief executive Miguel Ángel Gil and director of football Carlos Bucero spent unwisely in the summer, leaving the Atlético squad with several deficiencies.
January 2026 then will mark Alemany’s first window as sporting director — and, so we’re told, as the deciding voice on all incoming and outgoing transfers. This would be a huge shift away from Gil’s long-term iron-fisted rule over squad planning. And in the summer, Alemany will begin to receive financial backing from Apollo Sports Capital, which will take over majority ownership of the club in February.
But even in January, Alemany has work to do. He now oversees a talented but inconsistent squad that in some areas is inexplicably short. Atleti sneakily have been playing at an 89-point pace since the middle of September, but the Colchoneros are only fourth in LaLiga (behind Villarreal) and continue to age in key positions.
Eventually, the goal for Apollo will be to compete annually with Barcelona and Real Madrid for top signings — not just swipe a player every few years that the evil twins miss. To get on that track, Simeone’s squad will need to be fortified to compete at a higher level. Alemany’s reported interest in Bayern Munich midfielder Leon Goretzka, Crystal Palace defender Marc Guéhi and Bournemouth center-back Marcos Senesi could serve as a blueprint for how he wants to reshape the squad.
Some of these moves below may well happen in January; maybe none of them will, and it simply becomes a case of laying the groundwork for the summer window, when Apollo will have ascended into majority ownership. But if Alemany is to start making his imprint on the first team, these are steps he can take right away:
Bring in a new left-footed defender
To replace Reinildo Mandava, Gil and Bucero signed Matteo Ruggeri and gave him the #3 shirt, signaling to Javi Galán that his days at the club were numbered. I wrote about Ruggeri after the Valencia game, where he was solid enough defensively while offering little service in attack (aside from the deflected shot that led to Koke’s goal). That performance is a good summary of what he’s offered in his debut season.
I like Ruggeri as a backup, but he is not a starter here and I am doubtful already that he ever will be. Galán last week was sold to Osasuna. So, Atlético should sign another left-footed defender in January, with the possibility that this player is a left center-back as opposed to a pure left-back due to Clément Lenglet’s knee injury.
Unless an opportunity opens up to sign someone like Bayer Leverkusen’s Álex Grimaldo, Alemany is likely going to land on a central defender who can scoot Dávid Hancko over to left-back, where he would start for the rest of the season. Hancko is a very good center-back whose partnership with Marc Pubill shows promise, but Ruggeri hasn’t been convincing enough to make left-back his own, and Hancko playing there becomes more viable if a Senesi-type defender arrives.
What’s clear though is a new addition has to be made at the back. I’m tired of this club counting on Josema Giménez every year only for the third captain to play 10 games, get injured, miss the next month-plus and do it all over again. Be serious.
Gauge the market for Gallagher
Conor Gallagher is a player who has earned some admiration from fans for his attitude and ball-winning, not to mention the attacking instincts he has shown around the penalty area. But he is one of the team’s highest earners, taking home a reported €9 million(!) per year. He has as many yellow cards (two) as he has goals in LaLiga. He’s one of only four outfield players to participate in every league game this season, but he’s played just 634 minutes.
Gallagher is out of the England reckoning for now; Thomas Tuchel would not pick him to go to the World Cup if the season ended today. Yet, Gallagher has insisted that he is happy in Madrid and feels adapted to life in Spain after boyhood club Chelsea forced him out of London last year.
Gallagher is a €42 million signing who still has three-and-a-half years to run on his onerous contract. You or I didn’t ask Gil to overpay for Gallagher’s services. He has a lot of value to teams in the Premier League who can register him under the “homegrown” quota; Alemany shouldn’t simply give him away.
If Gallagher can bring an offer in excess of €30 million from one of those English clubs, Atlético should take it. Otherwise, I feel Atleti have to hang on to him until the summer.
“Replace” Nico Gonzalez…
I like Nico. I think he is a good player to have in the squad for the next couple years. But paying €32 million for a winger (by trade) who has scored one goal this season and turns 28 in April would be an insane decision.
Juventus however would be even more insane to agree to a renegotiation of that buy option, which will pay the bianconeri a cool €11 million per year over the next three years. Nico’s loan from Juve becomes a permanent transfer if (when) he plays 45 minutes in at least 21 games in LaLiga. It’s going to happen.
Upon arriving in September, Nico has become a fixture in Simeone’s 11 thanks to his versatility and tactical intelligence (not just because he’s Argentine, though it has helped his adaptation). But the constant positional shuffling has come at a cost: Nico has not scored since his well-taken header in September’s 2-0 win over Villarreal.
El Cholo has played Nico more as a left midfielder or a left wing-back than as a pure winger. Nico is having to patch holes elsewhere, playing roles that other signings should have filled. Despite Nico’s flaws — his technique is just okay and he doesn’t have much of a right foot — this is why Simeone can’t really do without him.
A player like Nico is important to have when you’re playing three or four competitions per season. But this is another of those poisonous Gil/Bucero deals, made from a position of weakness, that Alemany won’t be able to untangle. What he can do though is sign someone who can take Nico’s place in the lineup (though a good left-back will make him more offensively viable).
…using Jack Raspadori’s registration slot
Giacomo Raspadori is not really the player Simeone wanted to complete his attack. The coach hasn’t seemed sure what to do with him. Raspadori has played as a #10, a #9 and even as a left midfielder usually when Atlético are trying desperately to score a goal.
In short, Bucero and Gil dropped €22 million on yet another player who doesn’t fit. Alemany has to correct this mistake, too.
Raspadori recently has been linked with a move back to Italy, as Roma reportedly want to sign him and give him the minutes he desires before the World Cup. If Raspadori is moved on, Alemany should look to sign the kind of player for whom the starting lineup is crying out, a player his predecessors amazingly failed to sign: a speedy, unbalancing, modern “dribbler” on the left wing.
Just as an example, Atlético were interested in Atalanta’s Ademola Lookman over the summer, but he tried to force a doomed move to Inter Milan instead. With his value tanking over the course of 2025, it would be more feasible to sign Nigeria international Lookman in January — especially as Nahuel Molina gains EU citizenship to free one of the club’s three non-EU slots.
Sort out a new contract for Julián Alvarez
Before Atlético lost 3-1 at Barcelona earlier this month, Alemany gave an interview to broadcaster Movistar Plus+, where he was asked (predictably, because the world revolves around the evil twins) about his former club’s rumored interest in Julián Alvarez.
Alemany gave a forceful response, referring to Atlético’s star striker as a “very important player” who is “very happy” at the club — and, most importantly, under contract to 2030.
The Atleti wage bill probably is going to look quite different in a year’s time, and Alvarez is in position to become one of the dressing room leaders. It would not be a bad idea for the club to reaffirm its commitment to La Araña as its franchise player by offering improved terms that would make him one of the three best-paid players in the squad.
Alvarez’s form since the start of October has been patchy, but his lack of a stable partner amid injuries to much of the squad has not helped him rediscover form. If Alemany can convince Alvarez to sign on the dotted line, that his best club football is very much ahead of him, it would prevent a repeat of the Antoine Griezmann sagas we lived through in the late 2010s and remove a lingering cloud that would hover over the Apollo project.
