Arsenal still hoping to add club-record attacking signing

Julian Alvarez’s future remains uncertain, despite Atletico Madrid’s internal deadline for the player to make a decision passing without any confirmation of his intentions.

Sky Sports News report that Atletico set a deadline of Sunday for Alvarez to either commit to staying at Atletico or joining Arsenal, but club sources reportedly remain in the dark about the outcome.

In the meantime, Alvarez has returned to team training, following multiple days of ‘illness’ and training alone.

Ed Aarons reports for The Guardian that Arsenal are running out of time to persuade Alvarez to join, and Mikel Arteta’s previous conversation with the player only resulted in the Gunners boss being informed that the striker still wants to join Barcelona.

David Ornstein reported the same over the weekend, telling TNT Sports that Alvarez informed Arteta he doesn’t want the move. Whilst Ornstein added that things could change, he suggested there’s currently a low chance of the transfer coming to fruition.

The Barcelona move isn’t happening, Atletico have been very clear about that. But it seems Alvarez is trying to call their bluff, and the likely result is that he stays where he is.

There are still some claiming that Arsenal will make one final push, with Gianluigi Longari of SportItalia reporting that the Gunners are set to make fresh contact with Alvarez’s camp in the coming hours to try to convince the striker to join.

But going back to Aarons’ report for The Guardian, the journalist suggests Arsenal are now believed to be monitoring several other attacking options. There’s clearly not a lot of confidence they’ll change the Argentina international’s mind at this point.