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.
