When you talk of Pep Guardiola’s mistakes in the transfer market at Manchester City, Cole Palmer is the name most people would throw at him.
But while the Chelsea forward has become one of the Premier League’s best players since leaving the Etihad in the summer of 2023, a more recent sale has also haunted the Premier League champions.
When Julian Alvarez left for Atletico Madrid in August, even City boss Guardiola admitted “it could be a problem” if his squad picked up injuries.
But he could not have predicted the impact the Argentine forward was going to have in Spain after joining for a fee in the region of £81m.
The 24-year-old World Cup winner scored his 12th goal of the campaign on Wednesday to help Atletico beat Slovan Bratislava in the Champions League.
Alvarez also had a hand in their other two goals for Antoine Griezmann, making it 10 wins in a row in all competitions for the Madrid outfit.
Former Liverpool and Chelsea midfielder Nigel Spackman told TNT Sport: “He is a striker that is making the game look so easy at the moment.”
‘A joy and source of pride to have him with us’
While Alvarez’s numbers are nowhere near Palmer’s 57 goal involvements in 62 games since joining Chelsea, he has started to make a big impact.
His 12 goals and two assists in 24 appearances have helped Atletico to third in La Liga, just three points off leaders Barcelona, and 11th in the Champions League standings.
City, on the other hand, have won just once in their last 10 games as key players such as Phil Foden, Kevin de Bruyne, Jack Grealish and Jeremy Doku have struggled for fitness and form.
Erling Haaland has managed to score just four times in this period, although he has 18 in all competitions this term, but the club’s next top scorer is on three goals and that is six players.
Alvarez’s tally of four in the Champions League also continues his incredible record in the competition.
Team-mate Griezmann said: “Julian is an outstanding player. It’s a joy and a source of pride to have him with us. Hopefully we can keep helping him and enjoy having him around.”
Alvarez has been directly involved in 12 goals in as many Champions League starts – scoring nine and assisting three.
To put that into perspective, it took compatriot Lionel Messi 24 appearances to reach 12 goals in the same competition.
That means of players to have played 1,000+ minutes in the competitions history – only Haaland, with 78, has a better minutes per goal or assist ratio than Alvarez’s 98.
Why did he leave City?
After arriving from River Plate in 2022, Alvarez scored 36 goals and registered 18 assists in 103 appearances for City.
Despite this form and lifting Premier League titles and the Champions League, the 2022 World Cup winner was playing second fiddle to the prolific Haaland.
Guardiola said Alvarez had asked to leave the club because he wanted a “new challenge” – even though he was keen to keep him at the Etihad.
The Spaniard said: “He believes his period here must be over so both clubs arrive to an agreement.
“He’s incredibly loved by the team for his behaviour but like I said many times for many players, he wants to leave and have a new challenge.
“We saw what we have. If we have many, many injuries it will be a problem, but in a few months Oscar Bobb will be back and Phil [Foden] is in that position, [James] McAtee can play in that position, [Ilkay] Gundogan can play in that position, Bernardo [Silva]…
“Maybe it is a mistake, I don’t know, but I don’t like leaving players without playing for a long time.”