Couldn’t agree more - if we can get him, I’d be happy for us to spend more, because he’s the one who’s quality isn’t in doubt, is premier league proven and doesn’t have any lingering fitness concerns.
I just think Atletico won’t sell him this year for various reasons - lower profit on book price, ability to get a bidding war going if Barca are, as expected, very interested in signing him next year, plus transfer windows directly after a World Cup tend to be Inflated.
Spanish release clauses tend to be ridiculously high.
Depends whether Alvarez agitated for a move - there’s no sign of that or a desire/need to move him on.
That that brings us back to what we’ve done numerous times over the years - so we hold off signing someone else in the interim because we won’t be able to spend £50-£80m now and then another £100m+ on a forward next summer.
I’m really interested to see whether any links start to firm up from the really good sources - Ornstein, etc.
It’s obviously early days yet, but we’ve moved quickly so far and nothing really above the usually clickbait links - which does feel like we’ll bide our time and only go after someone if an unmissable opportunity comes up.