Julian Alvarez transfer: Why are Man City letting forward join Atletico Madrid?

Right at the start of what many are expecting to be Manchester City’s toughest season for a while, the Premier League champions have been presented with problem number one – Julian Alvarez’s imminent £81.5m exit to Atletico Madrid.

City boss Pep Guardiola did not want the 24-year-old forward to leave and – having featured in 103 matches across all competitions for the club over the past two seasons – his loss won’t be easy to cover.

Guardiola may have known the reality but his last public words on the Argentina forward, on Saturday after his side had beaten Chelsea in Columbus, made it clear what he felt.

“He will come back,” said Guardiola. “I count on him.”

Guardiola was not being disingenuous. He has relied on Alvarez as a significant part of his attacking unit. That is reflected in the price he is being sold for, the biggest in City’s history by a considerable distance.

But City have a long established policy of not keeping unhappy players – and everyone at the club knew an issue with Alvarez was looming once Argentina won the 2022 World Cup.

At that point, the then 22-year-old had made 20 City appearances, having arrived from River Plate for £14.1m, relatively unknown to European audiences. Crucially, over half of those appearances came as a substitute.

From that point, Alvarez knew he had no reason to be back-up to anyone.

The clear issue was the man in his way at City. The prolific Erling Haaland.

The statistics outline the problem.

There was no chance of Alvarez getting Haaland out of the team, leaving the Argentina looking elsewhere to become the main man.