FC Barcelona’s pursuit of Atletico Madrid forward Julian Alvarez has reached boiling point. After Alvarez publically stated that he “wants to” and “seeks” a move out of Atletico Madrid. Club CEO, Miguel Angel Gil Marin, has issued an extremely scathing and out of order attack on both the player and the Catalan side.
Losing the limelight on Messi's special night
The Atletico supremo did not hold back in the press conference and openly said it was the wrong day to make such declarations as Alvarez's comments took the light away from Argentina and Lionel Messi's historic performance.
"I deeply regret the words that Julian spoke. That was not the day to make them. That was a day of celebration for all Argentine people. It was Messi's day and Argentina's day, not his"Gil Marin
Still holding firm on €500M price tag
In spite of the world champion claiming his ‘dream’ would be to ‘realise himself’ at the Camp Nou this summer, Atletico have not blinked. Gil Marin insisted they had been transparent with their player about their stance since he arrived at the Wanda Metropolitano, and expect him to see out his contract.
“Atletico do not want to transfer his rights,” the Atletico chief declared with pride in their player.
Direct accusations of gaslighting and dishonesty
Where the Atletico CEO became really heated, was when he spoke about Joan Laporta and his side’s attempts to sing the Argentine forward:
"Barcelona are disrespecting us. They think that we cannot see them or that we can be fooled, that we are weak or we are not ready to defend ourselves. However, what they are demonstrating to the whole world is their form of behaviour. They are showing how it should be to act with disrespect for what is right"Gil Marin
Furthermore, Gil Marin suggested that the current Barcelona setup is making an operation they cannot pay the costs of, by using a way of acting with those in their league, by deceiving everybody.
"They don’t want anybody to know that the story which they are telling in every press conference, to all the media, the player and everyone is a total lie"Gil Marin
The Nico Williams echo
To emphasize his point, Gil Marin drew parallel to Barcelona’s public chase of Bilbao winger Nico Williams last season.
Nico Williams had been in the headlines constantly, with the Blaugranas expressing public interest without ever triggering his clause.
Alvarez's story mirrors this, with aggressive publicity to encourage him to move, and his significant release clause of €500M is still being ignored by Barcelona.
"Barcelona have already done this same thing last summer with Nico Williams of Athletic"Gil Marin
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