Sources in Spain have told The Sunday Express that his former club Atletico Madrid will offer their prodigal son the chance to return to the scene of his former glories in the summer with a possible season-long loan deal.

And Torres, who has never denied that Atletico “will always be my club”, would probably jump at the chance to go home to the team that launched him on the road to £50million stardom and where the fans still worship him.

Pictures of the home-grown striker they nicknamed ‘The Kid’ still hang in bars in the parts of Madrid that swear allegiance to Atletico rather than Real.

Torres, who came through the club’s academy, scored 75 goals for them at the remarkable rate of almost one every two games.

That is in stark contrast to the Chelsea fans who heaped more misery on the out-of-sorts Spaniard last week when they brutally booed him after the Capital One Cup defeat at home to Swansea.

But Atletico are not alone in wanting to throw a lifeline to a player whose Chelsea career now looks even more threatened following the arrival – and immediate impact – of Demba Ba and the likelihood that the fast-emerging Romelu Lukaku will be recalled from his loan spell at West Brom at the end of the season. Former Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti is also set to try to lure Torres to Paris St Germain in the summer.

Another ex-Stamford Bridge manager, Claudio Ranieri, would also like to snap him up if he succeeds in steering Monaco back into France’s top flight.

Juventus and the Turkish giants, Besiktas, are also understood to be monitoring how this season pans out for him at Stamford Bridge.

But if the sorry Spaniard does indicate that he wants out of Chelsea after a seemingly never-ending nightmare since he moved there from Liverpool for £50m two years ago, Atletico would almost certainly be his favoured destination.

Madrid’s ‘other club’ are struggling financially and resigned to losing prize asset, Falcao, in the summer – with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich still desperate to take him to the Bridge.