Manchester City are about to sell Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid – and one report in Spain has suggested their neighbours Real Madrid could now be placed ‘on alert’ as a result of the transfer.
City reached an agreement with Atleti this week to sell Alvarez for a club record £82 million.
Alvarez had grown tired of his role towards the end of last season, and has been open to leaving for some time.
He has had interest from a number of clubs, but it is Atleti who have won the race. Official confirmation of the move is expected soon, after a brief hold up regarding personal terms.
It is a move that reflects extremely well on Pep Guardiola and also director of football Txiki Begiristain, with a £68 million profit being made.
The talk is now about who could replace Alvarez, and one report in Spain believes the potential successor could come from Real Madrid.
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There is already plenty of talk regarding who could be Alvarez’s replacement at City.
The club could use the transfer market to sign a new player. Or Pep could potentially hand minutes to the likes of Oscar Bobb and/or James McAtee, who recently became a new first-team option.
Some have called for the Alvarez funds to be invested in a new defensive midfielder to help ease the burden on Rodri, with other attacking players to then cover Alvarez’s departure.
An interesting report has been published today by Spanish publication Mundo Deportivo, which talks about one potential option for City this summer.
They report that Real Madrid forward Rodrygo is a player Pep ‘likes a lot’, and could be someone he moves for as a replacement for Alvarez.
They do add that Rodrygo, in principle, does not plan to leave the Bernabeu, and the comments he made after the Champions League final about wanting to stay are mentioned.
But Mundo say that Real Madrid are, nevertheless, ‘on alert’ for a potential approach from City for Rodrygo in light of the Alvarez sale.
Rodrygo move is highly unlikely, but it’d be incredible
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It would be absolutely amazing to see Rodrygo in a City shirt.
He probably doesn’t really get as much hype as he should given the presence of Vinicius Jr at the Bernabeu.
But Rodrygo – who reportedly earns around £206,000 per week at Real – has been a top quality player for Real since he signed for them in 2019, and he spent a lot of time playing through the middle last season in a two-man attack with Vinicius.
In theory, he could be a replacement of sorts for Alvarez.
But a player of his quality would expect to play every game and he would not necessarily be a nailed-on starter at the Etihad, although he could perhaps play out wide if he did come.
This would be a highly unlikely move. But nothing can ever truly be ruled out in the transfer window.
