The obstacle in the Julian Alvarez saga has flipped. Atletico Madrid, according to beIN Sports, have softened their stance and are willing to negotiate the 26-year-old’s departure this summer, but only to Arsenal and only if the player agrees. He has not.
The Argentine has refused a return to England after his Manchester City spell and is holding out for Barcelona, a preference he has expressed both publicly and internally to the club. That single-mindedness has stalled a transfer the two sides could otherwise have started to close.
The fee circling the file sits at around £120m, reported by Football Insider and others, well below Atletico’s €500m release clause but comfortably a club-record piece of business for either side.
Barcelona’s 72-hour ultimatum
Barcelona’s sporting director, Deco, has given the operation a hard deadline. Mundo Deportivo, via Barca Blaugranes, reports the Catalan club have set “no more than two or three days to get the deal done”, with the file to be closed on Saturday if there is no imminent breakthrough. That leaves Deco a narrow window to convince Alvarez to force his own exit before the plug is pulled.
Read also: Max Verstappen can still walk away from Red Bull as father confirms key contract clause
If the deadline lapses, Barcelona will move to alternatives. Viktor Gyokeres, Ayoze Perez and Luis Suarez are the names publicly linked, though the sporting department has been “working discretely and at a good pace, on a large amount of different profiles”.
Cerezo and Gil Marin’s public no
Atletico’s public line has, until now, been categorical. Chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin told the club’s own channels there would be no sale at any price, as relayed by Goal.
“We don’t want to transfer him. We didn’t accept the €100m offer, nor will we accept one for €150m or €200m,” Gil Marin said.
President Enrique Cerezo has echoed the same position in recent weeks. The operational shift, if beIN Sports’s reporting holds, is that Atletico’s board is prepared to make an exception for Arsenal, precisely because a Premier League destination avoids strengthening a direct La Liga rival.
Read also: Ronaldinho makes shocking football comeback after more than 10 years away
Simeone opens La Liga without him
Diego Simeone chose to start the season without the Argentine on the pitch. Atletico beat Malaga 2-0 at the Metropolitano, with Lee Kang-in and Alex Baena both scoring in the second half.
Simeone was asked afterwards about the absence and denied it was transfer-related, telling reporters via Goal that Alvarez simply needed more work after Argentina’s international window.
“I deal with the sporting side. [Julian] is an extraordinary lad. We spoke, as we always do. We need more training sessions with him. He’s the best player we have in attack, I’ve said that and I still think that. I want to build a team around him.”
“People will have their opinions. I’m very respectful of people’s opinions, I always have been in these situations, Diego Costa, [Antoine] Griezmann and now Julian.”
Saturday, then September 1
The transfer window closes on 1 September. If Deco activates Plan B on Saturday, and Arsenal accept the player’s veto is final, Alvarez stays at a club whose executive has just said yes to selling him and whose head coach has just opened the season without him.
Read also: 'A mistake for me': Leclerc rules out copying Verstappen's Red Bull playbook
