Barcelona have made solid progress on the transfer front in recent days, both in terms of arrivals and departures.
While they are now on the verge of signing Rodri from Manchester City, Deco and Co. managed to facilitate Ronald Araujo's exit and are close to finalising departures for Marc Casado and Roony Bardghji.
One objective that they have struggled to achieve, however, is the signing of a centre-forward. Julian Alvarez remains the top target, but Atletico Madrid maintain that they will not sell to Barcelona under any condition.
Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone was publicly asked about Julian Alvarez's situation earlier this week, and his response made it very clear that it was a decision of the club and not the player to continue working together.
"The situation is very clear. The club has made a decision that Miguel Angel has explained very well," he said, via Cadena SER.
He then spoke out on how he saw the striker as a critical part of his plans and how he hoped to extract the best out of his talent in the coming season.
"From a sporting perspective, we are very pleased to have a player like Julian and we will help him continue to grow and improve."
Finally, Simeone was asked to compare Alvarez's situation to that of Antoine Griezmann who also left Atletico Madrid once to join Barcelona.
"We had a period these years with Antoine, where he had to leave and come back and had to demonstrate on the field the quality and hierarchy he has, and I don't see any other path than working from the sporting side."
As matters stand, Julian Alvarez is expected to return to Madrid and join preseason early next week, and it will be the final chance for him to push for a transfer.
The player, quite clearly, wants to leave Atletico Madrid and he even publicly spoke about the same during the FIFA World Cup.
It is rumoured that he will continue to hold on to that stance next week when he returns to the club facilities in person.
It is unclear if he will go on an open war against the club by refusing to train or will just have a discussion with the administration asking for a departure. In either case, Barcelona can only wait and watch to see if the doors reopen.
