Atletico Madrid need four players to agree to lower wages to sign new deals

Atletico Madrid are looking to four players to cut their wages if they are to remain at the Wanda Metropolitano beyond the summer.

It's that time of year when a lot of decisions on where players will be for next season begin to be made, with Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema having made their decisions already.

Harry Maguire has decided that he wants to stay put at Manchester United, even though the club reportedly want to get rid of their captain.

And Mauricio Pochettino's first decision at Chelsea was to tell Joao Felix that he wasn't wanted at Stamford Bridge under the new manager.

That means the forward will be back under the management of Diego Simeone when it was originally expected that he wouldn't play for the Argentine again.

Simeone recently revealed that under him players have to have sex at least four times a month, just to keep up with the national average.

It's not the only qualifying metric for players in the Atleti squad but four of them are going to need to cut wages to remain there.

According to MARCA, the club want captain Koke, Alvaro Morata, Stefan Savic and Mario Hermoso to sign new deals at lower wages.

Alvaro Morata is one of Atleti's highest earners. Image: Alamy

When the group signed their previous deals market forces put their wages at a much higher price than they would currently attract.

They are amongst the team's top earners and all their deals are due to expire in just over a year's time, when they could walk away for free.

Atleti would like the players to stay but only if they're willing to reduce their wages and would presumably look to letting them leave if they won't sign new deals.

Morata is reportedly interesting teams in Italy having previously impressed during his spell at Juventus but is said to be willing to reduce his wages.

Geoffrey Kondogbia, Yannick Carrasco and Ivo Grbic all have contracts of just a year left and they are expected to be sold in the transfer window.

Simeone's own future is in doubt with the former midfielder's contract as the world's highest paid manager entering its final 12 months.