Fabrizio Romano confirms Julian Alvarez "absent" from Atletico Madrid training amid Arsenal transfer pursuit | OneFootball

Arsenal transfer target Julian Alvarez has reportedly skipped training today due to feeling ill, though it seems he’s still keen to leave Atletico Madrid.

The Argentina international was rumoured to be absent from Atletico’s training session today, and this has now been confirmed by Fabrizio Romano on X, formerly Twitter.

See below as Romano posts an update on Alvarez’s situation, with the player wanted by Arsenal but still favouring a possible move to Barcelona this summer…

“Julián Álvarez, absent from training at Atlético Madrid due to illness as he feels unwell — as @marca reports. Arsenal are still attentive to the situation if Julián decides at any point to open doors to a move. Álvarez only indicated Barcelona as desired club so far,” Romano posted.

How will the Julian Alvarez transfer saga conclude?

This saga has dragged on for much of the summer, and the situation remains a complicated one in terms of reaching a breakthrough.

Julian Alvarez celebrates scoring for Atletico Madrid against Barcelona (Photo by Aitor Alcalde/Getty Images)

While Arsenal are clearly interested and ready to do a deal, the difficulty remains that Alvarez’s preference is still to join Barca over anyone else.

The problem with that, however, is that Barcelona are precisely the one club Atletico don’t want to sell the 26-year-old to as they’re a major La Liga rival.

This remains the stalemate, and something will have to give in the final few days of the transfer window, but there’s no sign yet of which side will back down.

Alvarez could dig his heels in for Barcelona and see if that persuades Atletico to eventually let him go as they probably won’t want to keep an unhappy player.

Or Atletico could stand their ground on Barcelona and insist that if Alvarez is so desperate to leave then he’s free to accept Arsenal’s offer.