Julian Alvarez, who left Manchester City in an £81.5m transfer to Atletico Madrid last summer, has at last responded to unanswered questions surrounding his relationship with the club and former manager Pep Guardiola.
Atletico paid an initial £64m, potentially rising to the full amount of £81.5m to become Man City's most lucrative sale in the club's history. Ultimately, the move after only two seasons came down to Alvarez's desire to play more minutes as an out-and-out striker - as the 25-year-old himself told MEN Sport.
But catching wind of this, Guardiola's response was cutting. "So does everyone," was the manager's verdict to just one of his players wishing to play more of the season's crucial matches. It ultimately ended in said player leaving and snubbing his former coach in his goodbye messages kick started suggestions there was a strained relationship between the pair as they parted ways.
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However, speaking for the first time in seven months on the subject with Infobae, Alvarez himself has squashed the idea he and Guardiola ended on bad terms.
Revealing the contents of their final conversation, the Argentinian explained: "I’m not one to send messages, but yes, I do see what people say. All the coaches I’ve had have treated me very well. In fact, more is said than what it really is.
"The last conversations I had with Pep were about 'thank you very much for everything you gave us in two years. There were so many titles. You never caused any problems, you didn’t bring any trouble to the club. Nothing. You always gave your all'.
"Not one complaint. They were always words of gratitude and mine too towards the club."
Since his transfer last summer the attacker has made 39 appearances under Diego Simeone's side, scoring 20 times whilst playing as Atletico's main centre forward in 36 of those outings.
Pressed if he is more comfortable playing in Spain, whether his form has come down to the change in coach or anything at all going wrong in Manchester, he responded: "No, no, the truth is that City, since I arrived, trusted me.
"They brought me from River to Europe. I played a lot of games, scored a lot of goals, we won titles. That was perfect. And if I had stayed there I would have been comfortable too.
"I always said that I am very grateful to the club, but I did need something. Something inside me told me that I needed a different challenge, to look for something new, which was not motivation, because I will always want to continue for more, but something that I don’t know... A different challenge in my career.
"And I felt that here could be my place to develop better, to find my best version as a footballer. So it was a bit because of that."
Looking back at which matches he felt he should have had a chance given by Guardiola, there were two occasions that stood above the rest.
"I do want to play the most important games," he added. "As I said, I don’t know, in the [2023] Champions League final [vs Inter]; I didn’t get in. In the semi-final [vs Real Madrid] I didn’t play much, and I would have liked to play in those kinds of games. A bit because of what I said before, I’m thinking about the change."
