Diego Simeone will not abandon Atletico Madrid to take over at Manchester City this summer.
That's the view of Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague, amid reports the Premier League champions are targeting the 44-year-old as a potential replacement for Manuel Pellegrini.
The Daily Mail claimed on Tuesday that Simeone, who led Atletico to a 4-0 win over Real Madrid on Saturday, is on the radar of City, who fell seven points behind leaders Chelsea in the title race following the weekend draw with Hull. However, Balague does not believe Simeone would leave the La Liga champions with Chinese billionaire Wang Jianlin set to invest in the club after buying a 20% stake.
When asked who would be on Atletico's list to replace the Argentine, he told Revista de La Liga: "None. Because he's staying. 100 percent he's staying. He's staying partly because he sees the club developing so there's a lot of money coming in from China as we know. And partly because he got Fernando Torres and he's told Torres he will stay one more year."
Torres, who originally played for the club between 2001 and 2007, re-signed on an 18-month loan deal from AC Milan in January and has scored three times in seven appearances.
Atletico president Enrique Cerezo confirmed Simeone was behind the decision to sign the striker, saying: "Simeone hardly ever asks us for anything but he asked for Torres."
