Roma's Director of Football Lauds Success of Atletico Madrid & Diego Simeone as an Example to Follow

AS Roma are looking at how Atlético Madrid became a European powerhouse in the hopes that the Giallorossi can emulate their success.

The Director of Football at the Stadio Olimpico Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo (better known as Monchi), has said that he is looking to 'Romanise' the club, ahead of their trip to the Wanda Metropolitano in the Champions League on Wednesday.

"We are trying to ‘Romanise’ Roma a bit more," Monchi told Spanish publication Mundo Deportivo (via AS Roma). 

"The coach [Eusebio Di Francesco] has played for the club, just as the team manager [Morgan De Santis] did - and of course we have Francesco Totti as director, a man who is basically Roma.

He then referenced the success of Atlético Madrid as a template for his new club to emulate, but caveated that is would be a difficult process.

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"It’s difficult for us to try to repeat a model in the exact same way because in each league the circumstances are different.

"But I certainly admire Atlético for managing to do two things: firstly for managing to recover from a complicated situation and, after being in the second division, rising to become part of the European elite; and secondly because they have done so in the same city as one of the biggest clubs in the world, Real Madrid.

"I think that they are going through a difficult period, which has happened to Real Madrid and Barcelona too.

"But it would be wrong to write off Atlético just yet, to under-estimated their quality or the great ability of Diego Simeone."