Atletico Madrid sports chief Jesus Garcia Pitarch admits he regrets signing Luis Garcia from Liverpool.

The midfielder moved onto Racing Santander this summer and Pitarch said: "One thing I regret in these three years I've been here is to have signed Luis Garcia."

Pitarch insists Atletico did well to hold onto their star players this summer.

He added: "For this year's limited budget, forced and imposed, we could have sold El Kun, Forlan, Perea, Simao, Valera, Assuncao or Ujfalusi, players who have received offers, some of them very important, and found an enviable economic solution.

"It would have been easy, but we did not intend to decapitalise the football club."