Atlético de Madrid is closely monitoring one of the players they have on loan due to the importance of his past and his contractual situation with the red-and-white club. This is Saúl Ñíguez, who has another year of contract with Atleti and, in the summer, his loan to Sevilla FC ends. The Sevillians must decide whether he will continue wearing the Sevilla jersey in the coming months.
For Atlético, it's water under the bridge, although everyone at the club holds him in great affection, from the Madrid entity they see his cycle as completed. They hope there won't be any major issues for him to leave, whether to Sevilla or another entity; it will be seen closer to the date. Saúl hasn't been able to play all the minutes he expected due to an injury that kept him out for nearly two months.
Xavier García Pimienta counts on him and he is his captain, even when Jesús Navas was about to leave the club. In Sevilla, they see the player from Elche growing and, if he does his part, they have no major problem for him to continue with them. The player himself must also give a response, and his response, although he is happy in Sevilla, is conditioned by how the season ends.
Saúl Doesn't Aspire to Leave Spain
Although the idea of returning to Atlético always crosses his mind, Saúl doesn't currently see many possibilities of returning home and being important. He has already come to terms with the idea that his cycle at the club of his life has ended and that he must seek new horizons. He doesn't consider, for the moment, leaving Spain, although he always has offers from various clubs, especially from Arabia and the United States.
If he doesn't continue at Sevilla, he could analyze everything, although his idea is to remain a Nervionense for at least a few more years. At 30, he feels capable of being in the elite of Spanish soccer, and Sevilla and the Sevillismo trust in seeing a more decisive Saúl. His best match with the white-and-red jersey was against Girona, when he scored his first goal as a Sevillista and assisted Dodi Lukebakio to win 1-2 in Montilivi.
Negotiations in Summer
This season, with the Catalan coach, in 15 matches he has 1 goal and 5 assists, far from his best version, but surpassing his figures from last season with Atlético. In his last year at the Metropolitano, he played 49 matches, scoring 2 goals and providing 4 assists, two of them against Real Madrid.
The clubs are bound to negotiate a new agreement, despite Saúl, when he arrived at Sevilla, leaving something "verbal" with the Sevillians. Those intentions now need to be formalized, and the player himself giving the OK to his continuity in Nervión will depend on several factors, including the future of García Pimienta.