Negotiating with Barça has become unpopular

BarcelonaThe days go by and Atlético de Madrid is not softening with Julián Álvarez. Quite the opposite. Far from exempting him from public scorn, on Sunday they put him to play against Villarreal at home (2-2), where he was rewarded with shouts and whistles for his insistence on joining Barça this summer. The Madrid club remains firm in its position of not closing any transfer agreement with the Culé entity, which is reluctant to abandon the fight for what it considers the best possible replacement for Robert Lewandowski. "The issue is already personal," argue sources close to the mattress management to ARA, where for months the criterion of the investment fund Apollo Global Management has predominated. As this newspaper has already published, from the Metropolitano only the transfer of Julián is considered if the buyer is a club from outside the League. At the moment, no negotiation is possible with Barça, which could only make the dream of the international light blue paying the 500 million of his release clause.

This sustained refusal is a sibling of the historic difficulties that Barça faces every time it takes an interest in a player from a First Division team. Complications that the blaugrana sporting management has often resolved with a chequebook. The most recent example is that of Joan Garcia, starting goalkeeper for Hansi Flick's team since last summer. His signing cost the 25 million euros that were listed in his release clause. There was no possibility of negotiation with Espanyol, who were only willing to agree to a transfer fee if the Bagenc footballer refused to join the eternal city rival. This recipe is the same one that Athletic Club wanted to follow with Nico Williams, a target for Barça both last summer and the one before. Either the clause (more than 60 million euros) or nothing. In the end, however, the Navarrese winger ended up renewing with the Biscayan club, where last season he had a very irregular role due to recurring groin discomfort.

Lately, when Barça wants to go shopping in La Liga, it usually encounters this reluctance to negotiate. Just like Joan Garcia, other high-profile operations with Spanish clubs were closed unilaterally. The most expensive of all was precisely with Atlético de Madrid in the summer of 2019. Twelve months after publishing in a documentary produced by Gerard Piqué the pumpkins with which he gifted the Catalan club, Antoine Griezmann finally jumped to Camp Nou in exchange for the 120 million of his clause. Two of the several footballers that Barça has signed from Sevilla also paid for their freedom. Clément Lenglet (2018) deposited almost 36 million to become a culer, while Seydou Keita (2008) came under Pep Guardiola's orders in exchange for 14 million.

More time has passed since the historic signing of Rivaldo, who on the last day of the summer market in 1997 ended up at Barça at the hands of Josep Lluís Núñez for 4,000 million of the old pesetas (about 24 million euros). And less remembered is that the barcelonista institution paid Leganés the 18 million of Martin Braithwaite's clause a few weeks before collapsing economically due to the covid-19 pandemic.

Dani Alves and Jordi Alba, fruit of negotiations

If we rewind in time, it is observed that Barça has also incorporated talent from La Liga after negotiating with different clubs. For example, with Atlètic de Madrid, and in contrast to the current refusal, the signing of Arda Turan (2015) for almost 35 million was cooked up. With Sevilla, the transfers of Dani Alves (2008), Adriano Correia (2010), Ivan Rakitic (2014) and Jules Kounde (2022) were agreed upon. Of the four bets, none went wrong, as demonstrated by the fact that it is difficult to remember the prices between fixed and variable (36, 14.5, 18 and 60 million, respectively).

The only failed signing from the Sànchez-Pizjuán was that of Aleix Vidal (2015) for 17 million. Nor did the operations negotiated with Valencia go too well, which sold André Gomes to Barça for 55 million between fixed and variables, Paco Alcácer for 32, Jeremy Mathieu for 20 and Gerard López for 21. None of the four lived up to Jordi Alba, who did succeed at Camp Nou after having done so at Mestalla. Furthermore, the Barcelona-born full-back was cheaper (14 million in the summer of 2012) and became Leo Messi's main partner.

Other signings negotiated with clubs from La Liga were Samuel Eto'o (Mallorca, 2003), Pedri (Las Palmas, 2020), Junior Firpo (Betis, 2019), Gabi Milito (Zaragoza, 2007) or Martín Cáceres (Villarreal, 2008). The list of deals between Barça and other Spanish clubs is long. For some time now, however, reluctance to negotiate with the Blaugrana entity has grown. Julián Álvarez is a victim of this trend.