At the end of my second season there was a job vacancy at
Atletico Madrid which I applied for and got, a new project. First of all Reyes had been sold the first season. Also the previous manager had a deal already signed for
Armin Bačinović from Palermo for a quite big £9.5 million for an average player. However the previous manager had picked up some nice players during the two years such as
Park Ji-Sung, Šime Vrsaljko, Rafael Márquez and Raul Meireles. I was given a decent 7 million transfer budget. After working with
Anderson at Malaga I knew he was quality so I signed him for £6 million and loaned in experienced
Goran Pandev and flamboyant Mario Balotelli.
Since they had finished third in the previous season there was automatic qualification to the champions’ league group stage where I faced Manchester united, Ajax and Rapid. I qualified second as I was expected to do. The board only wanted me to achieve this so the 2-2 aggregate victory over Man City in the next round was a bonus. But in the next round I faced who? Barcelona. Again I lost but was happy with my
quarter final place, also Barcelona had gone on to win the Champions League that year. In the
Spanish cup I lost to Real Madrid 2-1 in aggregate in the semi-finals.
In La Liga for the third year in a row Barcelona first and Real Madrid second. I finished fourth and was fighting for third all along.
My season revolved around my front men,
Falcao was sensational all year with 37 goals in 37 appearances with an average rating of 7.56. Both my attacking midfielders
Arda Turan and Diego Costa proved to be stars as well with all important assists.
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