Atletico Madrid sack Abel and bring in Quique (News Feature)

By Duncan Shaw Oct 23, 2009, 10:24 GMT

Madrid (dpa - Troubled Spanish giants Atletico Madrid announced on Friday, as expected, the sacking of coach Abel Resino.

According to the websites of AS and Marca, the new coach will be former Valencia and Benfica boss Quique Sanchez Flores, though that has not yet been officially announced by Atletico.

Quique's first match in charge will be at home to fifth-placed Mallorca on Saturday.

At a chaotic press conference on Friday, unpopular sporting director Jesus Garcia Pitarch announced the departure of Abel but refused to give details about who his replacement might be.

Earlier on Friday, Garcia Pitarch told radio station Cadena SER that he offered the job to Michael Laudrup on Thursday, only for the Dane to turn down the offer.

Garcia Pitarch revealed that he had offered his resignation on Thursday to club president Enrique Cerezo, but the latter had asked him to stay on.

Cerezo and Garcia Pitarch have been subjected to angry fans' demonstrations this autumn because the club actually raked in more money from selling players this summer than they spent on new signings.

On Friday Abel thanked the fans and directors for their support during his stormy nine-month reign. 'I wish the best luck in the world to the club,' he said, 'and I hope that things get better here.'

Abel took over in February 2009 from the sacked Javier Aguirre, who is now the national manager of Mexico. His first setback was elimination in the Champions League round of 16 at the hands of FC Porto.

He did well to guide Atletico to a four-place finish in La Liga - mainly due to the goals of league top scorer Diego Forlan - and through the Champions League preliminary round, against Panathinaikos.

Abel added that 'my conscience in clear because I have tried everything...This situation has to be reversed. A pair of good results will change everything.'

Club president Cerezo was not, surprisingly, present at the press conference. Earlier, he told AS that 'this is the worst sporting crisis of my presidency.'

Atletico are sixth from bottom in La Liga - having conceded 17 goals in just seven games - and bottom of Champions League Group D with just one point from three games.

The final nail in Abel's coffin was Wednesday's 4-0 meltdown away to Chelsea.

To further add to the chaos and confusion at Atletico, it is not clear whether Miguel Angel Gil Marin will continue as the club's general director, as a result of ambivalent statements that he made to AS on Friday.

Gil Marin is the son of the controversial Jesus Gil, club president and owner from 1987 until his death in 2004.

Gil Marin and Cerezo have, to the chagrin of the Atletico fans, sold the club's downtown Estadio Calderon to the Madrid city council, and are planning to stage the team's home matches at the small stadium in the eastern suburbs that was going to host the Olympic games of 2016 if Madrid had been granted them.