From a neutrals perspective, Atletico Madrid is the perfect team to support. They play an entertaining brand of football, they have a charismatic manager and they are always competitive in domestic and European competitions.

Atletico have built a great team on a relatively tight budget in comparison to their title rivals Barcelona and Real Madrid. Therefore the noisy neighbours from Madrid are probably the best underdogs in the world. A league title or Champions League triumph is not expected from Atletico, although their La Liga crown in 2014 was not surprising all the same.

At present there isn’t a Premier League team that is better than Barcelona or Madrid. So how did Atletico close the gap, and what on earth does it have to do with Newcastle United?

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According to Forbes, Newcastle are the 18th most valuable team in world football, which is two places behind Atletico. However, the Magpies are already fighting relegation whereas Atletico are challenging for trophies. The disparity is quite puzzling when you consider the similarities between the two clubs. Newcastle have a passionate fan base, a large capacity stadium and a comparable wage bill with Atletico.

They even play in stripes, like Atletico!

So where did it all go wrong for Newcastle? Under Kevin Keegan, in the mid nineties, the Magpies were title contenders and one of the most valuable teams in the world. Players like David Ginola, Les Ferdinand and world record signing Alan Shearer, amazed the St James’ Park Crowd every week with thrilling performances.

They may not have won a trophy during that period, but it was certainly a great time to support Newcastle United.

Fortunately for Atletico they took their title chance in 1996, winning the league and cup double. Both teams enjoyed a period of success during the nineties before they took a turn for the worst and were relegated to the second tier of their domestic leagues, Atletico in 2000 and Newcastle in 2009.

The Magpies gained promotion straight back to the Premier League in 2010, and have had their opportunities since then to build a great team, most notably under Alan Pardew. Newcastle, like Atletico, have always been a selling club, although unlike Atletico, they haven’t been allowed to reinvest the funds into new players because of Newcastle’s club owner Mike Ashley. This is why there is such a disparity between these two great clubs.

Once Atletico Madrid got back into La Liga, they became the original Moneyball team. Now everyone is copying the methods of Atletico, by buying young players with great potential and high sell on fees. When Atletico sold Fernando Torres, they bought Diego Forlan, they replaced Forlan with Sergio Aguero and then Aguero with Radamel Falcao, and the cycle still continues today.

Newcastle United could have had a similar break when they sold Andy Carroll for £35million to Liverpool; they replaced him with Demba Ba, who was later sold for £7million. The same thing happened when they sold Yohan Cabaye to PSG, the Magpies just do not know how to reinvest and until they do, they are never going to challenge the top teams.

At the core of Atletico’s success is Diego Simeone, their passionate Argentinian manager since 2011. He has been rightly accredited with much of Atletico’s achievements in recent years. Prior to Simeone’s arrival Atletico had a tendency to sack and hire their managers on a regular basis, thus drawing more comparisons with Newcastle.

The Magpies have had three different managers in the time that Simeone has been in charge of Atletico, and Steve McClaren’s current reign doesn’t look like a long-term solution for success.

All is not lost for Newcastle, though. If they can present themselves like Atletico, then the Toon Army is an attractive prospect for any top manager. Someone like Frank de Boer, with a Moneyball philosophy could do great things with Newcastle, although until Ashley leaves United, then the closet Newcastle are going to get to Atletico is in the contents of their history books.

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