Atletico Madrid boss Diego Simeone wants striker Adrian Lopez to remain at the club next season.
The Argentine wants to keep his best players at the Vicente Calderon and, according to AS, has asked the Atleti board to keep Adrian – who still has two years left on his existing contract – at all costs, despite him having a relatively poor 2012-13 campaign.
The 25-year-old featured in a total of 31 La Liga games but completed just two, starting 14 times and coming off the bench on 17 occasions. His 1,413 minutes made him the 12th most used player in the Atleti squad, although he was first choice in eight Europa League games and took part in six Copa del Rey ties.
Simeone is aware that Adrian still has a decent market value and wants to avoid a repeat of last summer when he was the subject of interest from the Premier League, Arsenal and Tottenham having been particularly keen to take him to England.
After joining from Deportivo La Coruna in summer 2011, Adrian had a great first season and Los Rojiblancos were keen to extend his existing deal. However, negotiations broke down a few months ago and the player changed agents, opting to join Jorge Mendes’ stable of top players
Nonetheless, Simeone is now hoping the parties can come to some form of agreement as he formulates his strategy for next term.
