Pep Guardiola has finally spoken about Julian Alvarez following renewed speculation about the Manchester City star’s future.
Alvarez has been the subject of a lot of talk in recent days, with the player being open to leaving the club this summer.
The Argentina international is ready to depart in the hope of securing more regular game time. He would also prefer to play in a warmer climate.
Alvarez did actually finish last season with the most appearances across all competitions. But in terms of minutes played, there were eight Manchester City players ahead of him.
Now, Guardiola has finally commented on the player’s future, issuing a fairly stern response.
Pep Guardiola anticipating decision from Man City star Julian Alvarez
The main reasons for Alvarez not featuring as much for City in 2024 were the returns of Kevin De Bruyne and Erling Haaland.
The 24-year-old had replaced De Bruyne following his hamstring injury. And he then ended up leading the line when Haaland had a spell on the sidelines around Christmas time.
But the duo were both back by January, which had a negative impact on Alvarez’s playing time.
Also, the form of Phil Foden made things tricky for Alvarez.
His lack of starts led to speculation at the start of the summer that Alvarez was open to leaving City, and the speculation was finally put to Guardiola last night. Atletico Madrid are thought to be keen.
And the City boss issued a fairly stern response. He said (via MEN): “He said he’d think about it. When he’s finished thinking about it, his agent is going to call Txiki and we see what happens.
“I know he wants to play important moments, yeah. But the other ones [do] too. 18, 19 players as well want to play the big games. I read he wants to think about it. Okay, think about it and after that he will inform us what he wants to do.
“He plays a lot, he wants more? That’s fine. That why, think about it. When he thinks about it he’ll inform us.”
Pep seemingly not best pleased
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This response from Pep comes off like he is a bit irritated with the situation.
Predicting that his agent will come to Txiki Begiristain, and also talking about other players wanting to play matches.
It just feels like the manager isn’t too happy. Indeed, it was recently claimed that Pep was ‘furious’ behind the scenes with Alvarez’s behaviour this summer.
At this stage, it feels as though City selling their £14 million signing Alvarez is unlikely.
Purely because it would be difficult to sign someone at this stage to replace him and his output.
