How Diego Simeone can cap extraordinary evolution with biggest prize of all

Football’s most prestigious trophies are not lifetime achievement awards. If they were, Mikel Arteta and Diego Simeone may see a glint of silverware in spring. Arteta’s three consecutive second-place finishes in the Premier League and back-to-back semi-finals in the Champions League can lend themselves to the idea he deserves to win a major prize.

But so does the man in the opposite dugout at the Metropolitano. Along with Massimiliano Allegri, Simone Inzaghi and Albert Batteux, Diego Simeone is in the select group who have reached two Champions League finals but won none. Only one manager has taken charge of more games in the competition without winning it: Arsene Wenger .

And if that explains why Arsenal and Atletico Madrid are arguably the two biggest clubs – in the modern environment, anyway – to never become European champions , there is a chance for one to change that. The odds may be that it isn’t Simeone. Atletico Madrid, a distant fourth in LaLiga, who came 14th in the Champions League’s initial phase, who were beaten at home by Bodo/Glimt, who have, including a penalty shootout, lost seven of their last nine games in all competitions, are few people’s idea of the best team in Europe.

Nor is this the definitive Simeone side; they have less snarling defiance, less defensive obduracy. But they are three games from the crowning glory of a stay of extraordinary longevity. It is why Simeone is sometimes compared to Wenger; each built teams and a stadium and, given the significance of annual Champions League revenues, the Argentinian could be forgiven for echoing the Frenchman’s infamous assertion that fourth place is like a trophy.