Football can be such a brutally thankless sport at the elite.
Imagine being Lamine Yamal, one of the biggest anomalies the sport has ever produced, with countless, and I mean countless, masterclasses, and yet…
You have a few games where you’re not at your best, and low and behold, some of your own fans will turn on you before even the biggest haters.
Scrolling through twitter and half time tonight, you’d think he singe-handidly cost us the CL final or something.
Baffling.
@cagiago_ Better pull? You lot must have no shame in pursuing a player that clearly don’t wanna play for you lmao
You better not utter a word about pull 😂
Isak did the same thing to get his move.
Gyokeres did the same thing to get his move.
But Alvarez doing the same thing to get his move is where the entire footballing world comes together and paints Barca and Julian black. Because of one thing, they fear what we're becoming.
Imagine calling your own star player a “rat” simply because he wants to follow his childhood dream.
Restricting comments. Encouraging toxicity. Turning on one of your own.
@Atleti@atletiuniverse, this isn’t just unfair. This is embarrassing. Football is supposed to be a gentleman’s sport.
Now that Barça are, for the umpteenth time, 100% ruled out, it is important to make one thing clear: @Atleti have our FULL support.
We fully supported the club when they insisted Julián Alvarez was not for sale and did everything possible to protect and support the player throughout this situation.
But there comes a point where enough is enough. The club have been pushed into an increasingly suffocating situation, and if that has ultimately forced them to reconsider their stance, then they have our full backing in doing so.
If Arsenal is now the realistic way out, Atleti should facilitate Alvarez’s departure as much as possible while protecting the club’s interests.
A player who was once rotting on the Manchester City bench was given a new opportunity by Atleti, who made a significant investment of around €95m in him, yet he remains ungrateful.
• Slipped while taking the penalty against Real Madrid in the Champions League.
• Cholo welcomed him with open arms and helped him discover the best version of himself in just his first season, surpassing all his previous career-best numbers, initially in fewer minutes.
• Scored just 8 league goals (2 penalties) the following year.
• Went three months without scoring a single league goal.
• Missed the penalty in the Copa del Rey final that could have won Atleti their first title in five years.
And after all of that, Atleti fans, staff and players continued to support him and stand by him. They even drove his shirt sales higher and showed their support both through the 70,000 fans attending the Metropolitano every week and across social media.
On top of that, he still had the nerve to disrespect the club and its people.
He continues to cling to a “promise” that was never included in his contract, which clearly states “2030” and “€490m”.
Instead of continuing to communicate and handle things professionally and privately, he decided to go public despite still being legally in the wrong.
Absolutely NOBODY above the club.
Thank you for your services, and now out of the club, @9julianalvarez. 👋