Thursday, 30th October, 2014
Diego Simeone is relishing the opportunity to rebuild the Atletico Madrid team after the departure of their star striker Diego Costa this summer.
With his 27 league goals for the club last season, Costa played a crucial role in Atletico Madrid winning their first league title for 18 years.
But the Spaniard left Los Colchoneros to join Chelsea this summer in a deal worth £32m and has already scored nine league goals in England.
Simeone has no hard feelings towards Costa and said that he is relishing the opportunity to rebuild the Atletico Madrid team into another formidable and robust outfit.
"Those that leave make their living from football and it's good that they want to grow in other places”, the Argentine was quoted as saying by AS.
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“When players leave it gives me double motivation because that's what it football is, starting from scratch. There are two ways you can go; you can live on the memories or you can win the Spanish Supercup.”
He admits that he is still trying to find the right combination this season and feels that some of the new signings are taking time to getting used to Spanish football.
“We are working to find our best team, we still haven't found a team that will give us stability.
“[Antoine] Griezmann needs to give us more, [Raul] Jimenez needs to adapt to the demands and the intensity of our football… and these are players in decisive positions.”
Atletico Madrid are fifth in the league table and will host Cordoba on Saturday.
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