It has felt inevitable for some time now but, on Monday, Fernando Torres finally broke the news. “This is my last season at the club – it was not an easy decision, but under the circumstances it's maybe for the best,” he said.
It’s not easy for the fans, either. Torres’ impact this season, as he himself admitted, has been minimal. But he remains one of the most popular players in the club’s history, and letting go now, after a season spent predominantly on the periphery, is no less difficult.
Diego Simeone had confirmed in February that there would be no future beyond the end of the season for the 34-year-old. “No,” he had answered when asked if another year was a possibility.
It was honest, perhaps too honest, but the reality was inescapable. Torres has started just nine games across all competitions this season, and there has been a quiet, reluctant acceptance that his time to leave has come.
"I think this is the best time to say it," Torres said. "Today isn't a day for reproaches. I am just trying to explain to the fans how I feel. It has nothing to do with the club. This is the best way to carry myself for the next month and a half."
Even though it comes as no surprise, the sense of sadness is tangible. Torres has always been more than just a player for Atletico. Some questioned the logic of bringing him back in 2015 but there were no such doubts from inside the club.
This was a striker who had captained Atletico as a teenager, who scored close to 100 goals in his first spell with the club and left for Liverpool having established himself as one of the best forwards in Europe.
He was even better in the Premier League with Liverpool but moved to Chelsea and the decline began. Torres appeared bereft of confidence in London and departed for Milan having failed to replicate his brilliance with Atletico and Liverpool.
Then, in 2015, he was back at Atletico. It began perfectly: he scored against Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey and there was a sense that he might be reinvigorated by a return to his boyhood club. To an extent, that was true.
Torres has played close to 150 games since then, to varying degrees of success. Clearly, he was not the player he had been, but he remained a useful member of Simeone’s squad.
Now, though, that has changed. There has been a feeling this season of a growing divide between Torres and Simeone; not animosity, but a cooling of their relationship that has coincided with Torres’ lack of appearances.
"There will never be a Torres-Simeone divide; I won't allow it," Torres said in December. That did little to dispel the speculation, though.
And even now there is a suggestion that Torres is not leaving entirely of his own volition. He would not be forced out, of course, but it seems that Simeone has made clear to the club’s hierarchy that he is no longer needed.
There had been hopes that Torres might feature in Sunday’s Madrid derby, but he was left out, a further indication that he is deemed dispensable. It would have been his last appearance in the fixture, a game that means so much to him, a club icon, a symbolic figure.
"When I arrived at the age of 10, I always thought that Atletico would be my home," Torres said on Monday. "I have enjoyed the Atleti that I always dreamt of. If everything goes well I can go out with a title.”
In truth, and Torres has acknowledged this, it is time for both parties to move on. His exit might appear anticlimactic, but Atletico Madrid’s fans will not care. However the last few months go, they will give Torres a reception worthy of an icon.
