Juli\u00e1n Alvarez\u2019s public declaration that a move would be \u201cthe best thing for everyone\u201d has shifted a private matter into a visible transfer battle between Atl\u00e9tico Madrid and Barcelona. His comments at the World Cup have given Barcelona leverage while leaving Atl\u00e9tico facing pressure and anger.<\/p>\n
Alvarez acknowledged his wishes in strong terms: \u201cThe best thing for everyone is a transfer. I want to fulfil my dream.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the time to talk about this, but I can\u2019t hide either,\u201d he added. \u201cI try to be an honest person. I spoke with people at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, and I think a transfer is best for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reports from AS suggest Barcelona anticipated Alvarez going public and view the statement as a welcome development that increases pressure on Atl\u00e9tico to negotiate. ESPN says Atl\u00e9tico are \u201cfurious\u201d and \u201cblame\u201d Barcelona; the club could even consider legal action.<\/p>\n
There are familiar echoes in the reporting of the 2019 situation surrounding Antoine Griezmann, when dispute arose over which release clause applied. For now Atl\u00e9tico insist they will not sell unless a club meets the \u20ac500 million release clause in Alvarez\u2019s contract. The clause is mandatory in Spain and intentionally prohibitive, more than double the transfer world record of \u20ac222 million set in 2017 for Neymar.<\/p>\n
AS writes that Barcelona are \u201cconfident that Atl\u00e9tico will eventually agree to open negotiations.\u201d Fabrizio Romano adds that Alvarez has rebuffed interest from PSG and Arsenal, making clear that Barcelona is his destination. Romano also reports the player\u2019s relationship with Atl\u00e9tico manager Diego Simeone is \u201calmost zero\u201d because they simply don\u2019t gel; there has been \u201cno fighting\u201d but Alvarez appears to see no continuation.<\/p>\n
Inside Barcelona the stance has been noted on social media, with Ferm\u00edn L\u00f3pez and Gavi among those reacting positively to coverage. With the Spanish transfer window closing at 10:59 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1, this is likely to become a waiting game that could run to the deadline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Alvarez has made his preference for Barcelona clear, creating a tense transfer standoff for Atletico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1035,1017],"tags":[1081,983,1162],"class_list":["post-15219","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atletico-madrid","category-barcelona","tag-adaptation","tag-agents","tag-analytics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}