LONDON (AFP) - English Premier League club Chelsea's striker Fernando Torres has potentially opened the door on a return to Atletico Madrid, after expressing an interest in working under former team-mate Diego Simeone.

"In football, you never know," he told the Friday editions of several British newspapers. "You don't know where you are going to be tomorrow, in a week's time, or in 10 years' time.

"I've had a lot of admiration for 'Cholo' (Simeone), ever since we were team-mates. He taught me a lot in the seasons we played together at Atleti."

Torres, 30, has failed to impress since joining Chelsea from Liverpool for a British-record fee of £50 million (S$105.3 million) in January 2011, scoring only 44 times in 161 appearances.

His status was further undermined recently when manager Jose Mourinho was shown on French television complaining that Chelsea "lack a scorer" during a conversation recorded without his knowledge.

Simeone is enjoying a fine season with Atletico, who are challenging for the Spanish title and have reached the Champions League quarter-finals, and Torres says that he would be intrigued to work with him.

"I always want to work with people I admire," added the Spaniard, who left Atletico to join Liverpool in 2007.

"I admired Rafa Benitez from the outside and I had the chance to work with him (at Liverpool and Chelsea). The same goes for Jose Mourinho or (former Atletico and Spain coach) Luis Aragones.

"Simeone is like Pep Guardiola or like other coaches who you'd like to go and see how they coach and learn."