Atletico £34.5m transfer collapse impact on Man City exit for Julian Alvarez amid Chelsea blow

Julian Alvarez is expected to join Atletico this week despite the collapse of one of their outgoing transfers.

The Spanish club were set to sell Samu Omorodian to Chelsea as they build their squad for the new season and had agreed a £34.5m fee last week after confirming an arrangement with Manchester City to sign Alvarez for an initial £64m. Chelsea have been unable to reach an agreement with Omorodian though to the extent that the deal now looks unlikely to go through.

Atletico are now said to be pushing Joao Felix in Chelsea's direction again, but are continuing to finalise a deal with Alvarez. The deal should be announced this week in what will mark a club record sale for the Blues.

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City will need to replace Alvarez's minutes and contributions from last season, given he was used so heavily - particularly when Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were injured. Pep Guardiola is willing to wait until the final days of the transfer window to bring in another body, although the club will only move for the right price.

"We will see the chances at the end of the market if a club needs to sell more than now for example so I don’t know," said Guardiola. "Coming to the market now and knowing that we make a good transfer in terms of finances with Julián, people are waiting with the red carpet waiting to say come, come here and that is why you have to see what happens.

"Because the club has done well in the past. Many players didn’t come because the club didn’t pay what the other club wanted for that player. The club will continue to do what is fair."