There was a time, not very long ago, when Real Madrid and Barcelona could still do business with each other through gritted teeth. Calls were returned, deals were tolerated, and the loathing was kept to the ninety minutes. That era looks finished. A €150 million offer for Julian Alvarez, dropped into the middle of Barcelona’s own negotiation for the Argentine, appears to have burned off whatever goodwill was left between the two biggest clubs in Spain — and with LaLiga a week away, the timing could hardly be more pointed.
According to Jose Felix Diaz of AS, the relationship between the clubs is now completely broken, and the Julian Alvarez bid is what turned a cold war into an open one. Florentino Pérez put €150m on the table for Atlético Madrid’s striker. Atlético rejected it immediately, pointing to his release clause. In Catalonia, where the negotiation had opened closer to €100m, it went down badly — the reading there being that Madrid had deliberately made the deal more expensive.
Why the Julian Alvarez offer changed everything
Barcelona’s pursuit of Alvarez has been one of the worst-kept secrets of the summer, with the forward pushing for a move away from Atlético and the Culés opening at around €100m. Real Madrid’s intervention at €150m reset the entire conversation. Bernabéu Digital report that Pérez was the one who put that figure forward and that Atlético did not hesitate in knocking it back; the AS version of events adds that Los Blancos were prepared to improve the offer if the right circumstances developed.
From Barcelona’s side the grievance is straightforward: Madrid did not simply enter the race, they pushed up the price of a player Barcelona had spent weeks trying to make affordable. Nor is it the first time this window that Los Blancos have walked off with something the Catalans wanted. Bernardo Silva and Marc Cucurella were both linked with Barcelona before they signed at the Santiago Bernabéu, part of a summer in which Madrid’s business was declared complete only yesterday.
Negreira, not a transfer, is the real wound
It would be neat to pin all of this on one striker, but Bernabéu Digital make the more convincing argument that the Argentine is the garnish rather than the dish. The deeper rupture, they write, is the Negreira case — Real Madrid’s corruption accusations against Barcelona, pursued both publicly and through the courts. That is the point of no return the Spanish press keeps circling back to: a rivalry that used to live on the grass now sits in the directors’ boxes as well, and it colours every phone call between the two institutions.
Rodri is the next collision course
There is a second front. Bernabéu Digital also report, citing Fabrizio Romano, that Barcelona are preparing a third offer for Manchester City midfielder Rodri after bids of €50m and €60m were turned down, with City holding out for around €80m. Barcelona are said to have a full agreement with the player himself. Nothing is settled — only last night the story was that Rodri was ready to run down his contract at Manchester City — but it is another case of the same two clubs circling the same name.
None of which will trouble José Mourinho a great deal. His squad is assembled and Madrid’s own market has stalled rather than closed: Bernabéu Digital report that the club have made fresh contact over Aymeric Laporte, while stressing that no centre-back arrives unless Raúl Asencio leaves first. The boardroom row over Julian Alvarez, meanwhile, is somebody else’s to have. What it does tell you is the temperature of the season Real Madrid are walking into: the institutional peace between the two biggest clubs in Spain has collapsed and the first ball has not even been kicked. Madridistas who like their rivalries with an edge are about to be very well served.
