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Atletico and Arsenal are 2 similar sized clubs yet the way Atletico is spoken about in such respectful and appreciative manner compared to Arsenal.
The manager is more confrontational, the football is probably worse, the players are shittier, yet they speak so glowingly about Atletico
They’ve won the league twice in the past 10 seasons and have been in the Champions League every year, we haven’t won our league in 2 decades and just spent 6 years outside the Champions League. 20 years ago, Arsenal were a top 5 club in the world and Atletico were in the Spanish 2nd division.
We just need to start winning trophies regularly again and the conversation will change quickly.
I’d argue we’re a bigger club both by fanbase and historical acheivements although as we’re both the third most succesful club in our league that latter one may be a bit harsh on them.
To be fair Atletico get a lot of sympathy for fighting the historically state backed Real/Barca duopoly and having to share a city with Real too, while we are by far the biggest club in London, the most succesful club in the south and have at various points been the richest/flashest club in the country and arguably briefly the planet.
Have we ever been richest or flashiest? Member Boro had ravanelli as the highest paid player in the league in the 90s and then paid Merson more than bergkamp while they were in the sodding championship to steal him from us 😂
Our nickname used to be ‘the Bank of England Club’, the Queen and Queen mother supported us allegedly because of the possibly non sporting attributes of the Compton brothers and especially Denis the original Brylcreem Boy bothof whom managed to be world class footballers and cricketers.
Our initial successes were basically down to our owner deciding to move us to a richer part of london, build the best looking, most modern stadium and use the subsequent cash to buy the best manager and players in the league. Herbert Chapman was brought to us (a club wiht no senior league trophies) form Huddersfield where he was two titles into the first club to win three titles in a row. That’s Blackburn nicking Alex Ferguson levels of of flashy upstarts.
Chapman revolutionised football from formations to shirt numbers and floodlights and our system was copied globally, along with our shirt colours. From the mid 30’s to the late 50’s we were definitely the biggest or arguably the biggest thing in football.
We’ve not got there since, although there was a brief period of prime wenger where we probably played the most beautiful football on earth.
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Not sure where you are getting you sentiments from, but I’m pretty sure Atleti are viewed as the “villains of football” in Spanish football spaces.
There is appreciation for it as its backed by their 2 title wins in the recent, in their recent one being with full drama of the Luis Suarez situation. But the only team so far to break the duopoly between Barca and Real Madrid, so that’s also why they have their support.