Simeone, on Griezmann's substitutions: "I'm a club man"

The evidence corners.

Diego Pablo Simeone had no choice this Friday but to implicitly admit that Antoine Griezmann's three substitutions, unprecedented under his leadership, respond to a mandate from the club in his attempt to pressure Barcelona to lower the 40 million euros that he has to pay him if the attacker accumulates, in the two years of assignment, 45 minutes in 50% of the games in which he is available.

The quota, between last year and so far this year, is around 80%.

Asked if he used the stopwatch to order when the footballer should enter the field of play, Simeone replied: "They have known me for many years, I am a club man."

On other occasions, Cholo had replied that he used the Frenchman when he considered that it was better for the team.

He had also slipped that he was not the owner of the club,

just one employee.

This time, it went something further.

Match by match, the evidence has led Simeone to a scenario that could be prolonged if this Saturday in San Sebastián, against Real Sociedad (6:30 p.m., Movistar LaLiga), the coach maintains what he has proven in training this week.

He would be Griezmann's longest substitution since 2009, the year in which he was promoted to Real Sociedad's first team.

The footballer and Simeone have attended with a frown the poker game that Atlético, to reduce its cost, is playing with Barcelona, ​​​​which must assume the player's high file if the agreed minutes are not fulfilled so that the clause of purchase is exercised.

The coach's wish and hope was that the club would find an economic solution in the remainder of the season if they had to use Griezamann for a greater volume of minutes.

The matter is very tricky, because the coach's authority is undermined and has had to be combined with the needs of a club that assumes a wage bill of close to 200 million euros, of which the coach consumes 25%, and for which at first the emoluments of Álvaro Morata and Saúl did not count.

The maintenance of the bulk of the squad (only Lodi has left of those that Cholo preferred to keep), and to which Axel Witsel has joined, also enters the equation.

The edges of the issue are sharpened by how complex it is to establish the limits of how far Simeone can sustain his status as a club man above sporting interests.

The victory in the first game in Getafe (0-3) gave him a cushion that was minimized after the defeat in the Metropolitan with Villarreal.

In this sense,

the victory in Valencia, with a goal from Griezmann, by the way, was a relief.

A mere draw at Mestalla would have knocked them off the top of the championship, with Real Madrid and Betis five points ahead in just three games.

At the Coliseum, the Frenchman came out with the score in his favor (0-1), but with Villarreal and Valencia he entered the field tied at zero and the team's game demanded his presence beforehand.

Griezmann, who every time he has seen his permanence at Atlético in danger has expressed his desire to remain, has had no choice but to accept his unexpected and surprising substitutions.

The same as Simeone, decisive for the club to exercise the second year of assignment and register him in the championship.

That is why his relegation to the bench is striking.

The coach's fetish player, who also carried out a demanding physical plan this summer in Ibiza and who, from half an hour to half an hour, is the team's top scorer along with Álvaro Morata.

Rarely has he left his best scorers on the bench in his more than ten years as coach of Atlético.

The facts reveal a pact: a possible departure for Griezmann was paralyzed to the satisfaction of the player and the coach, but under a calculated substitution schedule.

Griezmann has entered the three games after the game hour.

With the increase in added time that the use of VAR has brought about, introducing it between the 55th and 60th minute could pose a risk if an extra time close to ten minutes was determined, as has already happened on occasion.

Playing from minute 60, even such a long extension would not mean exceeding the 45-minute limit.

The solution has so far been a flight forward that has ended up exploiting the club and Simeone.

And Barcelona remains to be activated if it considers that the strategy responds to a fraud of law.

Sources familiar with this schism assure that there may be two interpretations as to whether the computation is absolute over the two years of assignment or separately.

The truth is that, for Laliga accounting purposes, the first thing counts.

Even, according to the employer's regulations, when a purchase option on a transfer is below 20 games, a four-year amortization is imputed by default.

According to the club, so far they have only charged him for the loan he signed.

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