Report: Atletico Wants €100M transfer fee for Alvarez instead of player swap

According to Diario Sport, Barcelona view Alvarez as an important target to strengthen their forward line, but Atletico Madrid are taking a tough stance on the deal. 

Atletico Madrid have made it clear that they will not accept player exchange proposals, and if Barcelona want to take Alvarez away, they can only pay close to 100 million euros to complete a pure transfer.

Alvarez is the forward option most admired by Barcelona and the attacking player the club most wants to bring in to strengthen their squad for next season. He is fast, runs actively, and is highly efficient in scoring. These characteristics are very much in line with Flick's tactics, and Barcelona are prepared to try to push this signing. However, signing this player from Atletico Madrid will not be easy. Atletico Madrid's attitude on this issue is becoming increasingly tough, and the club has begun to feel dissatisfied with Barcelona's intervention midway through the season, and is also annoyed with the position the player himself is in regarding this matter.

Currently, Barcelona have not formally taken action towards Atletico Madrid, but have contacted people around Alvarez to understand the player's wishes and to probe the amount of money that might be involved in this deal. As far as Alvarez is concerned, there will be no problem economically, but the attitude of Atletico Madrid conveyed through the player's team is not optimistic. Atletico Madrid's position is clear: if Alvarez wants to leave, it can only be done according to the conditions they set, and the price must be high enough.

Barcelona's operation on this signing has been very cautious, and the club's senior management have been very restrained in their external statements. They don't want to say too much, because from the current situation, unless Atletico Madrid is willing to sit down and talk, the difficulty of Alvarez joining is very high. Therefore, Barcelona have only clearly expressed their appreciation for the player, but will not make crazy decisions to sign a player, after all, the club is under great pressure in terms of finance and salary leeway. One path that Barcelona originally wanted to try to push forward was to make an offer that included players, adding players that Atletico Madrid were interested in to the deal. Options on the table may include Casado or Ferran Torres, provided that the players themselves are willing to participate in the deal. For Barcelona, cash plus a player is almost the only feasible way to move forward at present.

But so far, Barcelona have not made any formal offers. The reason is that Atletico Madrid have made their position clear through people around the player, and will not accept any form of price reduction because of the addition of players. The deal must be a pure transfer, and the price must reach that "magic number" - 100 million euros. Or at least the total amount of fixed transfer fee and floating clauses must be infinitely close to this number, otherwise there is no possibility of a deal.

Under these conditions, Barcelona are not sure whether this deal is feasible, or even whether it is really beneficial to the club. The risk of completing a signing with such a high investment is too great. At this stage, Barcelona will wait until after the three games with Atletico Madrid, and the relevant topics may be brought back to the table in May. Next, this deal will largely depend on whether the player himself will take a pressure-based approach to promote the transfer. However, even so, Barcelona still believe that this deal is almost impossible to complete without a player exchange. There is still time before the summer window, and all parties are waiting for the situation to gradually cool down.

Just in case, Barcelona will also push forward with Lewandowski's contract renewal at the end of this month, and hope to get a positive response from the Polish striker, but the situation is not clear at present. Whether Lewandowski stays will be an important variable in this deal, as it will not only put pressure on Ferran, but also on Alvarez, who may also realize that he has once again missed the opportunity to join Barcelona.