Man City DID Consider Shock Move To Bring £129M Rated Forward Back To The Club
This article contains affiliate links. We may earn a small commission on items purchased through this article, but that does not affect our editorial judgement.
Man City weighed up whether to re-sign striker Julian Alvarez in the final week of the transfer window, according to reports.
Writing for The Athletic, the site’s City correspondent Sam Lee revealed that a return to the Etihad was considered by the club, but the player was not keen:
“Several sources familiar with Alvarez’s situation indicated that his former side monitored developments to see whether a return would be possible, but did not receive any encouragement. City deny they made any approach to Alvarez’s camp.”
Alvarez ended up staying at Atletico Madrid despite having publicly stated earlier in the summer that he wanted to leave the La Liga side.
Man City would have needed to break their transfer record
Having made two record signings in the space of a month, with Enzo Fernandez’s £125m arrival eclipsing that of Elliot Anderson (£116m), the Cityzens would have needed top pay even more to bring Alvarez back to Manchester.
Atletico’s asking price was said to be €150m (£129m), although it should be pointed out that the player was only interested in joining one team.
Along with City, Arsenal were also hoping to land Alvarez, but the 26-year-old was adamant that his one and only destination would be Barcelona.
Get a brand new 26/27 Man City third shirt from Fanatics here
Who will provide backup for Haaland?
The departure of Omar Marmoush means that head coach Enzo Maresca has been left rather short of options up front. The return of Alvarez would certainly have helped fix that problem.
For now, though, it looks like Antoine Semenyo will be deployed as an auxiliary striker as and when Erling Haaland is given a rest.