Atleti: 150 million for Julián Álvarez and Barça and Real Madrid barred

Atlético demand 150 million for Julián and close the door to the big clubs

Julián Álvarez is not the squad's top scorer and his club has no need to sell him. Even so, Atlético de Madrid has set his exit at 150 million euros and added a condition that has nothing to do with the market: neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona. The paradox sums up the final stretch of the red-and-white transfer window, the one in which the team insists it does not need to sell while negotiating the departure of half the squad and chasing a signing it has not yet closed.

Why Atlético valued Julián Álvarez at 150 million

The argument repeated is simple and contractual: the forward has a contract, has a release clause and the club is under no obligation to sell. From there, the 150 million figure works as a deterrent wall. Anyone who wants the player known as the Spider will have to pay it or wait for the footballer to tire of waiting.

The version circulating also points to a manoeuvre by the player's agent to force an exit, a script that, according to reports attributed to journalist David Ornstein, would be identical to the one he already used to leave Manchester City. At Atlético, suspicion is growing that both the representative and Barcelona's camp deceived the footballer with a promise that never materialised.

The real options being considered are two and both English: Arsenal and Chelsea. Neither Real Madrid nor Barcelona enter the equation. The club even considered taking the matter to FIFA and breaking institutional relations with Barcelona, a gesture that remained a leaked threat. David Villa intervened in the matter, recalling that no one put a gun to his head to sign and that a contract must be honoured. With fifteen years of perspective, it sounded like a dig.

Lee Kang-In: agreement with the player, loose ends with PSG

The signing that is advancing is that of South Korean Lee Kang-In. There is an agreement in principle with the player until 2031 and the definitive deal between clubs is still missing. Atlético offer 25 million; PSG want 35 million. Direct talks were expected in the trinc days, with the player pushing from his side.

The operation fits the profile liked in the boardroom: left-footed, versatile, able to play on the wing, as an attacking midfielder or as a wide forward. He is not a goalscorer, but he creates play and gets into the box. And, above all, he wants to come, a factor that has become a selection criterion.

That criterion has become part of the discourse. Anyone who hesitates or holds back is not worth it. The example cited is that of Luis Enrique, who would have halted a PSG signing precisely because the footballer only wanted to go to one place and would have offered him an obscene amount of money to convince him. The idea that commitment weighs more than talent has taken hold.

The exits: Almada to Flamengo and Sørloth staying

The sale financing the rest is that of Thiago Almada. Negotiations with Flamengo are advancing and there is an understanding for a transfer above 20 million for 50% of his rights. The player would look favourably on returning to Brazil and the club would recover what he cost. That money is intended to go for Espí, of Levante, whose clause would ease the finances of the Granota side, in urgent need of income.

At the other extreme, Alexander Sørloth is staying. The argument has a logic almost no one disputes: finding a forward who, without being an undisputed starter, guarantees twenty goals a season is utopia. What the club could get for him would not cover what his role as a reliable impact sub demands. Besides, in the market for No. 9s, the replacements do not convince.

Market context: Gyökeres, Jackson and prices that do not add up

The market offers uncomfortable mirrors. Gyökeres, signed by Arsenal amid great expectation, did not play a single minute in the first two Premier League matchdays, against Coventry City and Aston Villa, while Arteta continued to bet on Havertz as the reference point. There is already talk of a swap with pounds involved in January.

Chelsea, for its part, tried to include Nicolas Jackson, valued at 70 million, in the Julián operation, and Atlético rejected it. In the boardroom another profile is preferred, and Gyökeres's name is again being mentioned as an alternative. The conclusion drawn is uncomfortable: the market value of forwards has become detached from their real performance, and a club that does not sell cheaply can be left with an asset that depreciates every week.

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The derby: victory and a war of narratives

The start of the league season left a derby victory against the Madrid rival that peine the war of narratives. The triumphalist reading insists that Atlético were superior, that they controlled the match when they refused to enter the terrain of simulations and that the rival found only excuses. The atmosphere at the Metropolitano is highlighted, described as a cauldron.

On the other side, the opposite version: that the scoreline was narrow, that the opposing goalkeeper saved several point-blank chances — from Baena, from Julián — and that a 4-1 would have been truer to what was seen. The rival coach, singled out as responsible for a team that, by general consensus, has no style of play, was portrayed in the press room and took a dig from the red-and-white coach himself.

Refereeing controversy was not lacking either. A yellow card reviewed by VAR was questioned and it was reproached that the standard for awarding fouls in favour of one side is not applied to the other. Underneath beats an old complaint: some lose because they do not play and others, it is argued, because the measuring stick changes according to the badge. The banner and the repeated chant — 'not for sale' — added a background noise that transcends the scoreline.

The fans' rift: Cholismo and anti-Cholismo

The derby exposed an internal fracture that goes beyond the result. Some maintain that the coach's cycle no longer excites, that there is no project or ambition and that the club lives comfortably in a conformism that suits the business but does not aspire to excellence. The criticism even goes as far as blaming the playing system for the departure of forwards.

The defence is just as forceful: beating rivals has become a habit, and those who dismiss it as little do not remember the years when every season brought two timely humiliations. Calling the nonconformist spoiled has become common currency, and the cross-reproach between those demanding more and those defending what has been achieved dominates the conversation.

In the middle, an uncomfortable discussion about the growing weight of South American players in the squad. Part of the fanbase asks that no more arrive and questions that a club with a Madrid identity builds its XI around another identity; others recall that this contribution is also part of its history. The unease, at times, has drifted into a tone that goes beyond sport. The debate over nationalities has run through Spanish football for years and rarely closes well.

The budget and the real scale of the project

An economic detail overshadowed by the victory: the coach himself placed Athletic, Villarreal and Real Sociedad as rivals who will fight for the top positions, 'teams that grow to be near us.' The comment did not go unnoticed, because Atlético handles more than triple the budget of Real Sociedad. Lowering the scale of the objective has a credibility cost when the accounts say otherwise.

That tension — elite budget, modest discourse — explains much of the discontent. The club knows it is big in the bank and presents itself as small in ambition. And meanwhile, the fans divide their criticism between whoever fails on the bench, whoever signs in the offices and whoever wants to leave in the dressing room.

Koke, the only exception

Amid so much coming and going, one figure holds firm: Koke has just completed his 18th season in the first team, 17 years after his debut. A footballer who has marked the children who today watch him play. Atlanta United are pushing hard to convince him to cross the pond, but the decision depends on him, and the club is already looking for two midfielders to cover his succession.

It is no minor detail. In a market that has swept away half the squad, the captain represents the opposite: continuity. And it serves as a contrast to the main complaint about the sporting cycle, that nothing remains except the feeling that the team always ends up halfway. In the midst of the noise, the news of Leivinha's death at 76 also reached the fans' memory, one of those names that tie the club to its own history.

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Strictly on the sporting side, Atlético resolved its first friendly with a 4-1 win over Getafe and shared the goals between academy players and reinforcements. In everything else, the market remains open: Julián wants to leave, the club is in no hurry, the English clubs are circling and no one knows whether the standoff will break over the player or the money. And what if, in the end, the problem were not where a forward goes, but who decides the script from the bench?