Pep Guardiola doesn’t get much wrong. But letting Julian Alvarez leave Manchester City was certainly a mistake.
While everyone is quick to poke fun at their neighbours Manchester United for how well Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford and Antony are doing away from Old Trafford, it has gone unnoticed how good Alvarez is doing. City were questioned for selling Cole Palmer to Chelsea 18 months ago.
But accepting Atletico Madrid’s offer for Alvarez last summer was mad. A lot worse than United letting under-performing names go. Yes, it was a whopping £81m bid and it will have sure helped in balancing books with a huge profit on the £14m they paid River Plate in 2022.
But City are too good to be selling their best players. How would City’s season have looked if they had Alvarez this term? He has scored 22 goals for Atletico and created five. His seventh Champions League goal this term in midweek was an absolute stunner to keep Atletico in the tie with city rivals Real.
It was an absolute wonder goal. It’s not like Alvarez wasn’t important to City last season. He scored 19 goals and created 15. With City’s injuries hurting them in different areas during this below-par campaign, Alvarez could have papered over a lot of cracks.
He offers an alternative up front to Erling Haaland on those odd occasions when the Norwegian hit man is not having success. While he can also play behind and be the creative force for Haaland and those around him.
Pep Guardiola could have done with Alvarez's talents this season (Image: Getty Images)
He won two Premier League titles and the Champions League in their Treble-winning campaign with 17 goals and four assists in that 22-23 season. After 27 Premier League games last season, City had scored nine more goals. Maybe Alvarez could have made up that difference.
Instead, Guardiola opted to sell the Argentina international and bring back Ilkay Gundogan. Now Gundogan was a great for City before he went to Barcelona in 2023. The Germany star won them titles with match-winning goals.
But he is a pale comparison to that player since he returned last summer and lacks the energy and freshness of the much younger Alvarez. It is certainly strange for Guardiola to get one wrong. Alvarez could have been one of the players he rebuilds his team around this summer.
If Atletico turn it around against Real this week, the more Europe sees of Alvarez the bigger mistake it will look.
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Ousmane Dembele struggled at Barcelona after a move from Borussia Dortmund worth over £100m.
Ousmane Dembele (R) is back to his best form for PSG (Image: Getty Images)
He was just 20, handed Neymar’s old No 11 shirt and he struggled to live up to the hype. But the France winger is proof that players can turn it around when big moves fail to work out.
Dembele spent six years at Barcelona, won three La Liga titles and scored goals but he was plagued by inconsistent form and injuries. It was why there was no shock when they cut their losses on him in the summer of 2023 and sold him to PSG for less than £50m.
But watching him against Liverpool for the French giants in midweek, he looks like a player reborn. He tormented the Liverpool defence and only for the brilliance of Alisson, he would have had a couple of goals.
But he has 26 already this season so expect him to be the danger man when the Ligue 1 side visit Anfield on Tuesday night.
**ONSIDE**
Alisson. The greatest keeper performance I’ve ever witnessed by the Liverpool man v PSG.
**OFFSIDE**
Scott Parker. Burnley boss made NINE changes for an FA Cup game vs rivals Preston and lost.