8 clubs that improved even after selling their top players

Atletico Madrid

Forlan and Aguero left the club together in 2011

For the most part of football history, Atletico Madrid lived under the shadow of their glorious city rivals Real Madrid, but now they’ve won back to back league games at Santiago Bernabeu of all places. At present, Atletico are above Real Madrid in the league table and might finish the season the same way.

Atletico has always been a club that has been home to some great strikers. This list includes players like Fernando Torres, Diego Forlan, Sergio Aguero, Radamel Falcao, David Villa and Diego Costa. Even after selling these strikers, the club continued to move forward and found great replacements for their outgoing striker, with the current star striker being Antoine Griezmann.

In the last few years, Atletico have taken massive strides forward as a club and have several honours to show for it. This includes a La Liga title, a Copa del Rey, two UEFA Europa Leagues, one Supercopa de Espana, two UEFA Super Cups and one UEFA Intertoto Cup. In addition to this, the club also reached the final of the UEFA Champions League in 2014.

Interestingly, 9 of the 18 players who were part of the squad that played the Champions League final in 2014 were not at the club in the season that followed.

Atletico have also had to deal with the departures of many stars who were not strikers. This includes two of the best keepers in the game at the moment– De Gea and Courtois. Some of the other major departures Atletico coped with recently include Arda Turan, Miranda, Mario Mandzukic, Toby Alderweireld, Jackson Martinez, Filipe Luis, Diego Ribas, Ignacio Camacho, Maxi Rodriguez and John Heitinga.