Jack Grealish makes Julian Alvarez feelings clear as Man City finally sign replacement

Jack Grealish has made his feelings clear on former Manchester City striker Julian Alvarez.

Alvarez joined City from River Plate in 2022, but Guardiola often opted to choose Erling Haaland in the biggest games. The Argentine then departed Pep Guardiola's team last summer after Atletico Madrid completed a deal that could reach £82million with the initial fee thought to have been around £64m.

City failed to replace Alvarez with a like-for-like striker in the summer, with Guardiola instead only bringing in Savinho, who predominantly plays as a right-winger, in the forward areas. That decision has appeared to backfire, though, with City struggling for form and Alvarez shining in Spain with 16 goals already so far this season.

Guardiola has finally addressed the lack of an understudy to Haaland with the January transfer window signing of Eintracht Frankfurt forward Omar Marmoush - who has hinted he could even turn out to be a partner for his new Norwegian teammate upfront. But that has not stopped Grealish from sending his congratulations to former teammate Alvarez following his latest impressive performance for Atletico.

And after scoring a brace in Atletico's 2-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night, the 24-year-old received a message from Grealish, his former teammate at the Etihad Stadium. "What a player you juliiiii," he wrote in a comment on Alvarez's latest Instagram post which showed him celebrating his goals against Leverkusen.

Speaking in August, Guardiola claimed Alvarez had asked to leave the club because he wanted a new challenge. "It was a joy to work with him," the Catalan said.

"I learnt a lot from him and hopefully he can find what he was looking for. He believes his period here must be over so both