The Atlético Madrid Chronicle
Squad3 Aug 2026
Koke: 18 seasons and counting
585 appearances across 18 seasons in one shirt. Careers like that are not built on purpose any more, and Atlético Madrid know exactly what they have.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Door shut on Bart Verbruggen
Atlético Madrid asked and Brighton said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Aug 2026
Julián Álvarez wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Atlético Madrid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Alejandro Grimaldo signs a new deal
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Alejandro Grimaldo commits to Atlético Madrid for another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Julián Álvarez in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Atlético Madrid this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Marcos Llorente falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
In brief
- Market Nobody at Atlético Madrid has picked up the phone to Alejandro Grimaldo
- The dugout Julián Álvarez knocks on the manager's door
- The dugout Johnny Cardoso keeps his manager's vote