Barcelona unwilling to pay €100m for Premier League forward | OneFootball

Barcelona want to sign Julian Alvarez this summer, but prising him away from Atletico Madrid will be much easier said than done. Los Colchoneros do not want to sell to a direct rival, and if they continue to hold this hard-line chance until late August, the Catalans would be forced to consider alternative candidates.

One of the options that Barcelona have at their disposal is Bournemouth’s Eli Junior Kroupi. The 20-year-old is off the back of a very impressive debut season in the Premier League, as he scored 13 goals on the way to helping The Cherries qualify for Europe. However, this also alerted several clubs to his situation, and one of them is the back-to-back La Liga champions.

Barcelona consider Kroupi to be a very exciting player for the present and future, although the chances of him being signed this summer are very slim. According to Sport, they will not come close to paying €100m, which is the price that Tottenham Hotspur are willing to pay to Bournemouth for the French forward.

Barcelona only prepared to go big for Alvarez

While it has been reported that Barcelona would be prepared to pay anywhere between €130m and €150m for Alvarez, they consider this to be good value for one of the best strikers in the world. In regards to Kroupi, paying €100m for a 20-year-old that only has one full season of top-level football under his bet is a risk that they are not willing to take, which is why Spurs are far ahead of them in the race at this stage.

It does make sense that Barcelona see a big investment in Kroupi as a risk. They have made numerous bad decisions in the past when it comes to large transfer fees, so they will be wary of repeating these both now and in the future.