Marca: Why Atletico Madrid were ‘surprised’ by how Morata’s exit played out | OneFootball

Alvaro Morata officially became a new AC Milan player yesterday but Atletico Madrid were surprised by how things played out, a report claims.

According to Marca, Milan triggering the €13m release clause was ‘a course of action that has caused quite a surprise’ at Atletico because they had not made clear to the LaLiga club their intentions or their actions.

In fact, the only communication was that made by Morata himself last Tuesday when he said goodbye first to the directors and then to his team-mates, something that they find ‘inexplicable’.

The report adds that Morata was close to leaving last summer but Diego Simeone convinced the striker to stay for another year. The result was 21 goals and the best season of his career in terms of output.

The end of the season, however, began to raise doubts in the European Champions. He was dropped from the starting line-up, and then rumours of interest from Saudi Arabia and Serie A began to surface, even if the player publicly said he would stay.

Just over two weeks later, the plan communicated to both Gil Marín and Simeone has been blown up by the offer from Milan, which is a four-year deal worth more than €5m per year and a starting role.

Although Simeone himself spoke to him, as did Gil Marín , the striker decided to change teams after not feeling comfortable in Spain due to some excessive criticism of his performances on the field.