Chelsea have been identified as one of several clubs keeping tabs on Atlético Madrid striker Julián Alvarez ahead of the summer window. According to the Daily Mail, Alvarez is listed among attacking targets as Chelsea pursue both a midfielder and an attacking player.

Atlético paid £81.8 million ($109.7 million) to sign Alvarez from Manchester City in the summer of 2024. Over the subsequent 18 months the Argentina international has recorded 40 goals in 84 appearances for Atlético, a return that has intensified interest in his future.

Paris Saint-Germain are named alongside Chelsea as suitors, but Barcelona are reported to pose the most significant threat to Atlético’s hold on the forward. SPORT report that Alvarez sits high on Barcelona’s wish list as the club assess options to succeed Robert Lewandowski.

Lewandowski will turn 38 in August and, while he remains productive with nine goals in 15 La Liga games this season, Barcelona have been conscious for some time that planning for a replacement will be required. An ambitious proposal involving Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has been floated in wider coverage, but Alvarez is consistently mentioned as a principal candidate to fill the longer-term striking need at Barcelona.

A transfer for Alvarez would be costly. Estimates place the fee in the region of €100 million ($116.4 million). SPORT add that Barcelona are not presently in a position to complete such an operation as they continue to work towards complying with La Liga’s 1:1 spending rules.

With Atlético’s sizeable outlay to recruit Alvarez barely two years old, any approach this summer would be closely scrutinised. Chelsea’s inclusion on lists of interested clubs underlines the degree to which Alvarez’s recent form has attracted attention across Europe. The coming weeks and months will determine whether dialogue between interested parties progresses into concrete offers for one of the more prominent forwards linked with a move this summer.

Andrea Berta arrived at Arsenal in March 2025, succeeding Edu Gaspar and immediately bringing a résumé built at Atlético that mixed decisive finds with expensive errors. His time in Madrid was defined by an eye for potential and a willingness to back unconventional moves.

Among his clearest successes was Rodri. Released by Atlético as a youth, he impressed at Villarreal and was re-signed for around $23 million in the summer of 2018. Within 12 months Manchester City activated his $83.5 million release clause, beginning his transformation into a future Ballon d’Or winner. Marcos Llorente was another shrewd acquisition. Signed from Real Madrid in the summer of 2019 as a replacement for Rodri, Llorente had made just 39 senior appearances for Madrid and had been told by Zinedine Zidane that he was not part of his plans. For $47 million he became a perfect fit for Diego Simeone, making well over 250 appearances and becoming one of the manager’s most trusted players.

Berta also showed instincts for bargain flips. He helped Genoa turn a profit on Leonardo Bonucci in 2009, buying for $4.7 million and selling for $12.4 million within a month. The decision to sign Luis Suárez for $8 million in 2020 was unfashionable but effective; Suárez scored 21 La Liga goals in his first season to fire Atlético to the title and added 11 the following campaign. The Antoine Griezmann cycle remains perhaps Berta’s most impressive piece of business: sold to Barcelona for $141 million, recalled on loan in 2021, Atlético refused to trigger a $47 million option and eventually re-signed him permanently for $23.5 million.

Yet the record contains costly mistakes. Viktor Gyökeres arrived at Arsenal for $85 million in June 2025 and had an underwhelming start, with most of his seven goals up until Christmas described as flukes and Mikel Arteta deploying Mikel Merino up front in response. Atlético paid around $70 million to re-sign Diego Costa in 2017 only for his contract to be terminated three years later. Thomas Lemar, a near-target for Arsenal in 2017 after a failed $117.5 million bid, has struggled for Atlético and is on loan at Girona in 2025–26, with just 10 goals in seven seasons. Jackson Martínez, signed for $41 million from Porto after 92 goals in three seasons, lasted six months before being sold and prompting Atlético president Enrique Cerezo to say Martínez “was not at the level” of the club. Finally, João Félix’s $148 million arrival in 2019 produced a mixed four-year spell that never fully justified that outlay.

Berta’s ledger is unmistakably mixed: decisive scouting and spectacular value plays alongside high-cost gambles that did not always pay off.

Arsenal captain Martin Ødegaard has outlined the uncertainty around his recovery after the medial collateral ligament diagnosis that followed knee-to-knee contact in the West Ham game. Faced with reports he would be sidelined until at least the second half of November, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta accepted that he would be without his skipper for “a few weeks.”

Ødegaard declined to offer a firm return date, asking for patience while describing the practical difficulties of rehabilitating his stronger limb. “It’s tricky to set a return date with this type of injury because, especially it being my [stronger] left leg, a lot depends on how it goes when I start getting back on the pitch,” Ødegaard wrote in Arsenal’s programme ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League thumping of Atlético Madrid.

He explained the day-to-day challenge of testing the leg under match actions. “Sometimes it can be quite sore when you start passing the ball and shooting and all these things with that leg, so it’s really hard to say a date. All I can say is I’m progressing really well at the moment. I think we will know more when I start getting back on the training pitches and we’ll see how that goes. If that goes really well then it can be quick.”

On the grind of recovery he was candid. “It’s hard work and long days in recovery, but that’s what you want and I feel like it’s going well so far,” Ødegaard continued. “I feel like I’ve been really unlucky a few times this season.

“It was a knee-to-knee contact in the West Ham game, and at the time I didn’t know if it was bad or not because they can be quite painful, but normally you can run it off. So that’s why I tried to keep going, to see if it was getting better.” Arsenal would later diagnose Ødegaard with medial collateral ligament damage.

“I was hoping it was just a knock that would improve in a couple of minutes,” he recalled. “But it didn’t get better and I felt like something was wrong, so in the end it was better to come off. As soon as we got inside, the medical team had a proper look at it. When the adrenaline stopped flowing and it settled down a bit, then it was quite sore.”

Arsenal have recorded four wins in the five matches Ødegaard has missed. The club’s recent victory over Atlético required a set piece to break a goalless first half, and without the creativity from his compromised left leg Arsenal have struggled to produce a consistent flow of chances not originating from corners.