The Atletico Madrid squad will return on the seventh of July in order to begin their pre-season programme, and much of the attention will be on Joao Felix, providing no suitors come in for him between now and then.

However, Simeone will have other issues to contend with, one of them being the immediate futures of Rodrigo Riquelme and Santiago Mourino. The former had a fine 2022-23 season with Girona, while Mourino has joined the club this summer from Racing Club de Montevideo.

According to Diario AS, Simeone will take pre-season in order to run the rule over Riquelme and Mourino, as to whether he wants them to remain at the club for next season. If they fail to do enough, it’s likely they will be shipped out on loan instead.

Both players have been identified as possibly being used in the deal for Atletico Madrid to sign Javi Galan from Celta Vigo, although Simeone is likely to retain their services for the time being, which would point to others being used instead.