It seems like yesterday but actually 1000 days have gone by since Atlético announced Simeone as their coach on 23rd December 2011. And with him, so came a change in the club's fortunes. "I want an aggressive, strong, courageous team, quick on the counter-attack. The strengths that led the 'Rojiblancos' to identify with this glorious shirt. The challenge doesn't scare me", he said during his first press conference.

It took him two months, losing his first match - against Barcelona - and winning every game leading up to Bucharest, where he won his first European title: the Europa League. By then he had already put his famous 'game by game' philosophy out there, a mantra he still holds by today.

The 2012-2013 season kicked off with another title, the UEFA Super Cup, in Monaco against Chelsea, featuring a masterful Falcao. That campaign saw Atleti's return to the Champions League, their early European disappointment and, above all, their tenth 'Copa del Rey', won at the Bernabéu against Real. 'El Cholo' spent that time repeating a message that has stuck: "You should always believe".

With faith and hard work in bucket loads, then came la Liga. Simeone's men drew at Camp Nou and were proclaimed domestic league champions, a title that would take them on to lifting the Spanish 'Supercopa' trophy.

Weeks earlier, the Argentine coach had changed his trademark 'game by game' to 'final by final', thus piling the pressure on even more. Who knows if that is why the Champions League slipped away from him. What is certain though is that Lisbon will be his most painful memory of the past 1000 days.