Atletico keen to hold on Aguirre

Javier Aguirre is yet to agree to a new deal [GALLO/GETTY]

Atletico Madrid wants Javier Aguirre to stay as coach next season, although the Mexican is remaining noncommittal.

Atletico clinched a place in next season’s Champions League when his side beat Deportivo La Coruna 1-0 on Sunday, the first time the club has reached Europe’s top club competition for 12 years.

Atletico president Enrique Cerezo said Aguirre’s contract had a clause in which it would be renewed automatically if the team reached Europe this season.

Magnificent

“At Atletico, we like to respect contracts. Aguirre is a magnificent coach and an even better person,” Cerezo said in Monday’s editions of sports daily Marca.

Aguirre, a former Mexico player and coach who took charge of Atletico two years ago, said he wouldn’t decide before Atletico’s final game of the season at Valencia this weekend.

“I was employed to get us into the Champions League and we’ve done it. It hasn’t been easy at all, but we’ve achieved our aim,” he said.

Atletico will play in the qualifying round in August, together with FC Barcelona.

Spanish champion Real Madrid and runner-up Villarreal have secured berths in the group phase.

Since its previous appearance in the Champions League in the 1996-97 season, Atletico has had a checkered existence, which included a two-year spell in the second division.

Fernando who?

Atletico’s success was achieved without former captain Fernando Torres, who joined Liverpool last July.

The team ended its previous reliance on Torres by employing two strikers, Argentina’s Sergio Aguero and Uruguay’s Diego Forlan, who together have scored 33 of the team’s 65 league goals this season.

Fourth-place Atletico could finish the season a position higher if its result against Valencia is better than that of Barcelona, which visits relegated Murcia in its last match of the season.