In total, 95 years have passed since an Englishman donned the colours of Atlético Madrid.
Until now, that is.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the La Liga runners-up announced a £21.7 million deal to bring Tottenham right-back Kieran Trippier to the Estadio Wanda Metropolitano.
It was a deal met largely with confusion from short-sighted pundits whose experience of watching Diego Simeone extends to 1998 and two Champions League finals.
“Its a very very strange situation, is Atletico the right club for him? Theyre an ultra-defensive club with a manager who basically says to his full-backs, do not cross the halfway line. It could be a difficult move for him,” exclaimed former England international Danny Mills.
This scout report will provide tactical analysis to prove just how wrong Mills and co are.
Trippier has moved to Spain and will join Simeones team as they look to improve on last seasons second-place finish in La Liga.
This Kieran Trippier analysis will consider how he may fit in.
Diego Simeone use of full-backs
In order to truly understand how Simeone likes to use full-backs in his tactics, you have to look back several years to provide a fair analysis.
Over the past two or three seasons, the coach has been forced to rely on ageing stalwarts Juanfran Torres and Filipe Luis, neither of whom is capable of the lung-busting runs that they once were.
The likes of Šime Vrsaljko and Sergio Arias have come in, the former ill-disciplined in every sense and the latter taking his time to adapt to life in Spain.
At the same time, Luis Hernandez was shifted out wide from his usual central defensive role on the left.
The end result was clear: Simeone has not been able to use his wide defensive players as he would have liked.
Looking back to the victorious 2013/14 campaign when Atletico won La Liga, the two first-choice full-backs provided an impressive nine assists.
Rather than merely being a figure in the defensive phase of the game, they were important attacking threats that formed part of an attack built around Diego Costas physical threat.
Even when looking at last season, it is clear that Mills claim of full-backs taking up defensive roles is untrue.
Juanfran and Arias both spent more game time in the opposition half than Trippier did at Tottenham.
However, the signs are positive to reflect that su
