The sports news over the past few weeks has been more awash than usual with rumours linking Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez to Barcelona.
When the player himself admitted during the World Cup that it was time for him to move from Los Rojiblancos, the rumour mill went into overdrive, as it had when Barca had, apparently, made a €100m offer for the Argentine striker’s services.
From what’s been said, Atleti are in no mood to play ball with any club and intend to hold the player to his contract.
In practice,
as we’ve all seen plenty of times before, that isn’t necessarily a scenario that works.
The dance that clubs do in order to appease their support before almost always eventually caving in is preposterous, even if one does take the view that they can’t be blamed for the same.
In any event, just how realistic is it that Barca can sign a player who would surely be at the top of most culers’ wish lists?
Everyone will remember the Nico Williams chase and how that panned out, and this really does have echoes of that transfer saga.
If Joan Laporta fails to deliver the goods once again, questions are rightly going to be asked, but the major one has to be, if not Alvarez then who?
With Robert Lewandowski having left the club, and Ferran Torres coming to the final year of his contract – and yet to put pen to paper on an extension – there are reasons to believe that the club might not actually have a decent back-up plan.
Torres can play as the central striker of course, and it’s also entirely possible that with a bigger run of games, he may once again find the form that everyone knows that he’s capable of when he’s on his game.
Assuming such a scenario hasn’t entered Hansi Flick’s thinking, however, Barca are once again left with the potential of a summer of transfer upheaval, with no guarantee that it will end successfully.
Harry Kane will seemingly sign a new deal with Bayern Munich, ruling that particular avenue out, and Marcus Rashford’s ship appears to have sailed, too.
Other names have been mentioned but perhaps more in hope than in expectation. Eli Kroupi Junior is still only 20 and lacks experience, Mikel Oyarzabal says he’s happy at Real Sociedad, while Alexander Sørloth and Dusan Vlahovic have been linked with other clubs as well as Barca.
Though there’s still plenty of time for things to change to a more positive outlook as far as Barca are concerned, of course, and it would be unbelievably amateurish of the club to allow Lewy to leave without a Plan B, but all the while things stay in abeyance, there’s a possibility that things could go awry.
And that isn’t really good enough….
So today’s Barca Blaugranes Question of the Day is:
What is Barcelona’s best Plan B if they can’t sign Julian Alvarez this summer?
Now it’s over to you! Feel free to share your thoughts, predictions, opinions and answers in the comments section below!
