Liverpool and Atletico Madrid icon Fernando Torres is making his way through the ranks of coaching in the Spanish capital, but has turned down the chance to take over a slumbering giant of Spanish football.
Torres, 40, has been in charge of the under-19s at Atletico until this season, managing to wrestle a league title from Real Madrid. This year he took over from Luis Garcia Tevenet as manager of Atletico B, where things have been more of a struggle, but he is highly rated at Concha Espina.
According to Relevo, Deportivo La Coruna made an offer for him in recent weeks. After earning promotion back to Segunda, Imanol Idiakez was dismissed with Depor hovering in the relegation battle. Before Oscar Gilsanz took over two weeks ago, Torres was given the chance to do so, but decided to remain at Atletico, as he dreams of taking over the senior job at some point.
Deportivo supposedly made three attempts to pry him away from Los Rojiblancos, and Torres is more open to going there than some offers from midtable La Liga teams – his father is from Galicia. It is also noted that he does not want stall at Atletico in the same way as Raul Gonzalez has, spending five years at the Castilla side.
The main reason he did not decide to move though is because he wants to manage the senior side at Atletico. It is no coincidence that this story emerges just a day after it was revealed that Los Rojiblancos are planning for a life without Diego Simeone in the short to mid-term future. Torres would be one of the candidates, and they say it is not impossible that Torres was encouraged to stick around in case Simeone does leave.
It would be a major surprise if Simeone were to leave Atletico next summer, and the same source say that El Cholo himself would have to be open to making that change. However even the fact that Atletico are building a shortlist for when Simeone leaves is significant, given the Argentinian manager has become the face and heart of the club over the last 13 years.
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