Simeone remains a ‘warrior’, Barcelona have MSN but Real Madrid looking like Liga favourites

If there were a league table for longevity in La Liga Diego Simone would win it by a considerable distance. Last season he was the top flight's longest serving coach ahead of Rayo Vallecano’s Paco Jemez, Sevilla’s Unai Emery and Villarreal’s Marcelino.

Jemez is now at Granada, Emery is in France and Marcelino is wondering how he managed to get fired from one of the safest jobs in football having delivered Champions League football.

The upshot is that Simeone has now been Atletico Madrid manager for four and a half years and that’s 18 months longer than the next longest serving manager Ernesto Valverde.

He says that was what was on his mind the night of the Champions League final last May when after a second defeat to Real Madrid he told the world he was considering his future.

In an interview aired on Thursday night in Spain he claimed he never considered quitting, only that he was contemplating if he had the energy levels to, as he put it: “put myself in front of my players again, players who have given me everything over the last four and half years,” - doubts which, in effect, amount to wondering whether or not he should walk away. But he stayed and they go again with the same mix of resilience that has taken them to two of the last three Champions League finals.

And any doubts that the fire still burns in Simeone’s belly should be blown away by another quote he gave on Thursday: “People say that the pain of defeat fades but I don’t find that at all, and the agony of losing those two finals will never go away; no other final victory will make up for those two lost ones. Life does not give easy battles to the best warriors and I consider myself a warrior.”

With the managerial turnover as it is in Spain, Simeone’s four-and-a-half-year stint feels like Sir Alex Ferguson’s 27 years.

Luis Enrique meanwhile enters his third year. He does so on a high after this week’s Spanish Super Cup victory that puts him on a par with Pep Guardiola in terms of trophies won in the first 24 months in the job.

Anyone who thought eight of a possible 10 cups in the first two seasons could not be repeated was wrong. He is matching Guardiola stride for stride.

His biggest challenges this season will be replacing Dani Alves and keeping Neymar focused. Alves was the class clown for so long that it was often overlooked that his arrival in 2008 – along with the arrival of Guardiola and Gerard Pique – was one of the catalysts for such an incredible eight years of success. Sergio Roberto and Aleix Vidal will contest the role of replacement.

Neymar will turn up late because of the Olympics. Missing preseason can have an adverse effect on some players no matter how much work is put in subsequently. If he and his pals, Luis Suarez and Leo Messi hit the same heights as last season Barça will be tough to beat.

But something about their oddly sensible pre-season says it's Real Madrid for the title this year. It will be a life lesson for the president Florentino Perez if they do finish top of the pile after a summer in which transfer activity has been at a premium with old faces dressed up as new arrivals and fingers crossed that no one would notice.

Both Alvaro Morata and Marco Asensio – recalled from Juventus (courtesy of a buy-back clause and from Espanyol on loan) – were given the Galatico presentation treatment. But the stability and lack of a blockbuster signing might just go in Madrid's favour. If we allow for Toni Kroos occasionally having to play as the holding midfielder and Danilo occasionally having to play at left back, then every base looks covered.

And as Perez gleefully told anyone who asked him in Trondheim where Real Madrid won the European Super Cup: ‘Why buy new players when the ones you already have are the stars of Euro 2016’. It seemed like him trying to also count Pepe, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale as new signings. As plans go – operation ‘same again’ might just pay off.

So for longevity at the top it’s Simeone, from Luis Enrique and Zidane. But for the real gold, silver and bronze at the end of the season that order could well be reversed.