“?Atletico Madrid will be looking for a new manager at the end of the 2017-2018 season after current boss Diego Simeone admitted he plans to leave the club at the conclusion of the next campaign, “?reports the Daily Mail.
Simeone, 46, took charge at the Vicente Calderon in 2011 and looks set to bring an end to a highly successful tenure in Madrid. He appears to be planning a move to Serie A, where he spent a number of years as a player with Pisa, Inter Milan and Lazio.
The Argentinean reduced his contract with Atletico by two years to enable him to leave as a free agent in 2018, as opposed to being tied to the club until 2020.
Atletico Madrid’s defensive record under Diego Simeone:
265 games
140 clean sheets
Classic Diego. pic.twitter.com/UKbXLYZrBt
With Atletico placed under a transfer embargo for the next eighteen months (like their neighbours Real), the talismanic manager sees the Italian league as his next destination.
Taking charge of the club five years ago, Simeone is already the longest serving manager in La Liga and after having won a bunch of major honours – including a league title and the Copa del Rey, not to mention reaching two Champions League finals – his heroic status at the club is already assured.
His decision not to turn his back on the club that has given him so much means there will be no bad blood between the two parties when they eventually part. Simeone will still be at the helm when Atletico moves into their new 67,000 capacity stadium.
After suffering defeat to rivals Real for the second time in a Champions League final earlier this year, Simeone was rumoured to be reconsidering his future after having committed his services to the club just twelve months previously, following a hard fought battle by the board to retain his services.
Perhaps the transfer embargo has forced this rethink, but it seems more likely that Simeone simply wants a new challenge, and it makes sense that it would be in a league he already knows so well from his playing days.
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