Julian Alvarez’s attitude should be a red flag for Barcelona and Arsenal

Julian Alvarez’s attitude should be a red flag for Barcelona and Arsenal Make us your Google favourite In what has been one of the most tedious transfer sagas of the summer, the Argentina forward is pining for a move. Barcelona , Arsenal , somewhere where he will be truly treated as the superstar that he is. It started in 2024 with Manchester City. He wanted to move from them because he feared he wouldn’t get enough minutes, knowing that Erling Haaland is the star forward. So Atletico spent €90m in order to build their team around them. That was the move he accepted, the deal that he wanted, the one with a €500m release clause. And what has he given Atletico? In all honesty, not as much as they would have hoped. Eight La Liga goals in 22 starts last season, two of which were penalties. 17 goals the season before, four of which were spot kicks. Eight assists in 51 league starts. With numbers like these and the perceived cost - Atletico won’t settle for less than €150m - it’s a wonder that there are any suitors at all. Indeed it says more about the dearth of central attackers in the modern game than the guarantee that Julian Alvarez is truly world class. His stats are fine. His demeanour is not. The hostage-style kit launch pictures showed a man with a permanent petted lip, believing his own hype and no doubt that of his agent in desperately trying to secure another big payday in exchange for disrupting a player who is, probably, exactly where he should be. The manner in which he wandered off the pitch at the end of Atletico’s 2-2 draw with Villarreal on Sunday - dodging the boos and the shirt thrown at him in the process, has all the body language that should send serious warning signs to potential buyers. Barcelona would need to pull another imaginary lever to make this happen, spending money they don’t have on a player who clearly is being badly advised. The performative nature of this - if I show I don’t care, they’ll be forced to agree to my demands - is not the type of behaviour that befits a fee of this size, nor the person filling it. If we think about Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best and more egotistical players of them all, he kept his word to Sir Alex Ferguson to stay for one more season at Manchester United despite Real Madrid’s obvious interest. In that season he took them back to the Champions League final and won the Premier League. He then got his transfer. You wonder if Alvarez knows or indeed cares about the public image he is creating for himself. Atleti’s fans told him exactly what he thought of them as he meandered through the last 24 minutes after coming on as a substitute, touching it just 12 times. Why any onlooker sees this behaviour - Barcelona, Arsenal, whoever - and sees a future leader in their teams, which would be a given considering the size of the fee, is baffling. What’s more, Alvarez is now 26. This was once a player’s peak, but we are in a transfer environment where value is skewing younger than ever because sell-on value is a key driver; Alvarez would likely be in his 30s by the time his deal comes to an end. In this market, those players are effectively worthless in terms of being able to claw back some of the fee. We also need to look at the blockbuster deals with scrutiny. Liverpool are suffering from the relative lack of impact of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz. The duo cost over €275m but have flattered to deceive at Anfield so far. Indeed perusing the list of €100m transfers and you’ll find far more misses than hits, for players with a far better back catalogue than Alvarez possesses. Transfers at that range come with a multitude of risks; indeed Isak’s behaviour to coerce a deal from Newcastle to join Liverpool has clearly left the player with too much baggage to overcome, at least at this stage. But Alvarez as an individual simply adds another layer of complexity. He wants football on his terms, played his way, and that is a difficult combination with such a gigantic fee. Do clubs want this? We’ll soon find out.