THE language is as emotive as it gets. The desire almost overwhelming.

This is, of course, everything you would expect from a player and a club being shaped, moulded and driven forever forward by the irresistible force that is Diego Simeone.

That people should be in a decent position to argue that the Atletico Madrid side about to enter battle against their city rivals, Real, in tomorrow evening’s Champions League final in Milan is stronger than the 2014 version which won the Primera Liga is quite something, in itself.

In the two years since Simeone won the league and lost to Real in extra-time in Lisbon in the climax to European club football’s premier competition, the likes of Diego Costa, Arda Turan, Raul Garcia and Thibaut Courtois have all moved on. That Atletico remain strong contenders for domestic honours and find themselves back on this stage can be taken as convincing proof that this is a club where the whole is considerably greater than the sum of its parts.

Simeone’s team is not always pleasant to watch, but it remains easy to admire. They are no-nonsense, an attitude typified by the often rather frightening Diego Godin. They are the opposite of tiki-taka. Theirs is a game built on graft, selflessness, harassment and hitting the opponent where it hurts, often literally.

Players replace those who have gone and respond to the challenge by elevating their games to new levels. In the case of Fernando Torres, returning to the club in which he was formed has revitalised his career. Despite winning the Champions League with Chelsea in 2012, the striker reappeared at the Vicente Calderon on loan from AC Milan last summer as damaged goods. His time in London was not exactly a bed of roses with his short spell at San Siro best described as underwhelming.

Yet, here he is. Confident, expressive and, almost certainly, a more complete player than the one lured from Madrid to Liverpool at the age of 23 for a fee in the region of £20million.

“This final is the most important game of my life, an opportunity to write a page that isn’t written in the history of Atletico,” he said. “I have the chance to fulfil a childhood dream, which was to win with this club.”

“I knew what I was risking by coming back. A lot of people thought I couldn’t get better [than before], but I was sure of the group I was joining. I knew this group was heading for something big.”

And therein is the appeal of Atletico. The group, the collective, the siege mentality fostered by Simeone, this most obsessive, aggressive, ‘hands-on’ of coaches.

“We look after each other. We will die for each other and we know this is the only way we can compete,” said Torres.

“We know we can do it and we know that we have to do it as a team. This is the word we are listening to this week: team, team, team.

“We think this is the key word. If we are going to win, it should be as a team.”

One interested spectator will be the former AC Milan coach, Arrigo Sacchi. The teams he led to the famous trophy in 1989 and 1990 were things of beauty, inspired by the glorious talents of Gullit, Rijkaard, van Basten, et al.

Simeone’s Atletico is different, entirely, but Sacchi is effusive in his praise of it.

“He’s created a masterpiece,” said the Italian, who had one season as coach at Atletico in the late 1990s. “You have to admire Atletico because they are an example for everyone, not just in football.

“They’re facing a battleship with little more than a fishing boat and they have immense energy.

“If there were two teams playing like Atletico, what would happen? A game with six shots? For me, the game of football should be more, but that doesn’t mean I don’t admire them.

“Atletico have reached Madrid’s level with half the budget. On Saturday, it will be a clear confrontation between the group and the individuals.”

Enrique Cerezo, the president of Atletico, is certainly of the view that this side presents a considerably more formidable challenge than the Class of 2014.

“I see Atletico much stronger, prepared and psyched,” he said. “That, plus their friendship and unity, will produce a beautiful sporting moment.

“I wouldn’t change the opponent. The die is cast. They have 10 European Cups, the most, but it’s an incentive for us. In football, there is no fear, no respect.”

Simeone, perhaps, in a nutshell.