Barcelona’s summer-long chase for a number nine has hit the wall. The Julian Alvarez Barcelona transfer is now “99 per cent off the table”, according to Jose Alvarez of El Chiringuito TV, and the same broadcaster reports that Deco has already drawn up a three-man shortlist of alternatives with less than a fortnight of the window left.
It is a deflating morning for Culers who have followed this saga since June, and it arrives on the day the Blaugrana throw open the doors of the Spotify Camp Nou for the Joan Gamper Trophy. Here is where the deal died, who is next, and why the two most powerful men in Barca’s football department do not agree on the answer.
- Why El Chiringuito believe the deal is dead — and why the fee is no longer the problem
- The three names now on Barca’s shortlist: Georges Mikautadze, Ayoze Perez and Lautaro Martinez
- Where Hansi Flick and Deco pull in opposite directions
- The 54-goal hole Barca still have not filled
- What happens if nothing moves before Saturday
How the deal reached breaking point
The bare facts have not changed in weeks. Barca have put forward an offer worth around €100 million, Barca Universal report, and Atletico Madrid have simply not responded to it. Alvarez, for his part, has gone public with his wish to leave and to play for Barcelona. Neither of those positions has shifted an inch.
What has changed is the diagnosis. El Chiringuito’s Jose Alvarez told viewers he had spoken to several sources closely involved in the deal and reached a blunt conclusion. “Julian Alvarez’s transfer to Barca is 99 per cent off the table, due to a matter of ego rather than money,” he said.
That last clause is the important one. If this were a haggle over €10m or €20m, a window with 12 days left would be plenty of time. A dispute about who blinks first is a different animal, and the journalist’s reading is that the player has run out of levers to pull. “Julian is still waiting for Gil Marin to step in. For the moment, there’s no news, and none is expected,” he said, adding that Alvarez “won’t be taking any further action” beyond the public declaration he has already made.
Atletico’s own messaging has hardened in step. Diego Simeone was asked about the striker at his pre-match press conference on Tuesday and pointed straight back at the boardroom. “I think if the club owner spoke definitively, I think that is all there is to it,” Simeone said, via Sports Mole, before turning to the player’s fitness: “We do not see him in the right condition to play yet, I hope that in the next four days he evolves and is closer to what we want.” Atletico chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin had already insisted Alvarez is not for sale this summer.
Barca’s three-man shortlist
Rather than wait for a door that will not open, Barca have moved on to alternatives. Barca Universal, citing El Chiringuito TV, name three: Villarreal pair Georges Mikautadze and Ayoze Perez, plus Inter Milan captain Lautaro Martinez. Each comes with a very different problem attached.
Georges Mikautadze — Deco’s man, not Flick’s
The Villarreal forward has the strongest internal backing of the three, and it comes from the sporting director. Per the report, the Villarreal striker has impressed Deco enough for the sporting director to be convinced he would be a useful addition to the Barca attack.
The complication is on the training pitch. Flick, per the same report, is not fully persuaded and “does not see it clearly”. That is a meaningful split at a club that has spent this window insisting coach and sporting director are aligned — on Rodri, Flick said publicly that “we were all 100% convinced”. There is also the money: any move for Mikautadze is put at a minimum of €70m, which for a squad that has already committed heavy fees this summer is a serious outlay on a player the manager is lukewarm about.
Ayoze Perez — the €10-15m pragmatist
Mikautadze’s Villarreal team-mate sits at the other end of the market. Ayoze could reportedly be had for somewhere between €10m and €15m, which in this window barely registers as a line item. He is also the name that keeps recurring: Everything Barca listed him alongside Viktor Gyokeres and Luis Suarez among the profiles Deco has been quietly working on.
Crucially, it is the El Chiringuito shortlist report that frames Ayoze as a stopgap rather than a surrender: it suggests Barca may accept Alvarez is not happening now but could return for him in January or even in 2027. Signing a cheap, experienced, versatile forward would keep that door open without committing €70m to Mikautadze in the meantime. For a club that has spent three summers doing financial gymnastics, that logic writes itself.
Lautaro Martinez — the long shot
The third name has been circling since Barca were first linked with him earlier this month, and it will light up group chats before going nowhere. Lautaro is Inter’s captain and their emblem, exactly the calibre of centre-forward Barca have been missing since Robert Lewandowski left for Chicago Fire, and exactly the sort of transfer Barca’s balance sheet cannot casually absorb 12 days before a deadline. Even the report that carries his name concedes that Barca’s own level of interest is one of the obstacles. Treat it as the shortlist’s dream column, not its shopping list.
The counter-argument: is patience actually the smart play?
There is a case for doing nothing, and it is not a lazy one. Barca have already reshaped this attack: Anthony Gordon arrived from Newcastle United for €70m plus €10m in add-ons, Karim Adeyemi came from Borussia Dortmund for €22m plus €7m, and Jesse Bisiwu was signed from Club Brugge. Rodri’s arrival from Manchester City, made official on Tuesday, gives Flick the pivot he has wanted for a year. Panic-buying a striker on 30 August has ended badly for this club before.
The counter to the counter is a single number. Lewandowski, Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford scored 54 goals between them last season and all three have gone — a hole Barca Universal call the defining problem of Barca’s summer, and one they argue no single signing can plug. Their point is that the entire attack has to absorb the difference: Lamine Yamal becoming more ruthless inside the box, Gordon and Adeyemi reaching double figures, the wide players carrying more of the load.
Flick has been auditioning solutions in the meantime rather than waiting on the market. Raphinha has led the line in training and in the 5-2 friendly win at Basel, and Fermin Lopez has openly offered himself for the job, telling ARA he “can adapt” to playing false nine having done it in the academy. That is resourcefulness. It is not a centre-forward.
What the Julian Alvarez Barcelona transfer collapse means next
The immediate marker is Saturday. Everything Barca report Deco set a 72-hour red line for Atletico to give the green light, after which the case is closed and Plan B is activated. On the current evidence that deadline is going to pass without a phone call from Madrid, and the shortlist stops being a contingency and becomes the actual plan.
Expect the cheap option to win. A €70m move for a striker Flick is unconvinced by, executed in the last week of a window, is the kind of decision that gets a sporting director sacked in March. A €10-15m forward who can play across the front line, start when required and be moved on without loss if Alvarez becomes gettable in January is a far easier sell to a board still counting its levers.
The longer game is January, and then next summer. Alvarez has publicly stated his preference and, on El Chiringuito’s reading, has no intention of retracting it. Nothing about that gets easier for Atletico the closer he moves towards the end of his contract, and Barca know it. This is a pause rather than a full stop — but it is a pause that leaves Flick starting a title defence with no recognised number nine.
The bottom line
On El Chiringuito’s account, Barca are not signing Julian Alvarez this summer, and the reason is pride rather than price. Deco has three names ready, Flick likes one of them rather less than his sporting director does, and the cheapest option looks the likeliest. For all the noise of a window that has delivered Rodri, Gordon, Adeyemi and a reported permanent return for Joao Cancelo, the one position that decides the biggest nights is still empty.
The Gamper against Al Ahly kicks off at 20:00 CEST tonight and Elche away follows on Sunday. For the full background on how this week became decisive, read our breakdown of the Julian Alvarez Barcelona transfer entering its decisive week.
