Atletico Madrid will fight to keep their best players this summer and hope that their allegiance to the team and coach Diego Simeone will help ensure they stay. Chelsea loanee Thibaut Curtois and Diego Costa are two of the star players in mind and Madrid hope they can keep them both.
Courtois himself spoke as if he wanted to stay in Spain but the matter is largely out of Atletico’s hands. He said: “I have no emotional link to Chelsea.
“I have nothing against them. It is just that I have this bond with Atletico after all I have lived through with the club these last three seasons. If I have to go back to Chelsea just to play FA Cup and League Cup games, I will have to look for a solution.”
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin has told Diego Costa that the club will only sell him if he wants to leave. Gil said:
“We’ll try and make sure that all of the relevant players stay here. We’ve made a very aggressive approach for Diego to stay and we want to keep this dream going but it all depends on him. Our intention is not to sell anyone unless the player asks to be sold. Because of our run in the Champions League we have the money to mean we don’t have to sell.”
Two other star players that Atletico will try to keep hold of are Koke and Filipe Luis. But Koke’s allegiance to the club he has always supported and Luis’ loyalty to Simeone could see them both stay in La Liga too.
By Charlie Gregory
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