Enrique Cerezo has ended the debate over Julian Alvarez's future. The Atletico Madrid president confirmed the club's determination to keep the Argentine striker and ruled out any intention to sell, his words coinciding with the player's return to the squad after a summer of relentless speculation.
Speaking to the Catalan newspaper "Sport", Cerezo insisted Alvarez is an Atletico Madrid player. The club, he stressed, has never considered selling him. The Argentine striker has always been part of the team's plans and available to Diego Simeone whenever the coach wished to use him.
"We never intended to sell him, he is an Atletico Madrid player and available to the coach to play him whenever he wishes," the president said. It was a clear message aimed at killing off the talk that had linked Alvarez with an exit from the Metropolitano during the summer window.
Those comments land just as Alvarez has reclaimed his place in the Atletico squad. Over recent weeks the noise around his future dominated the agenda, fuelled by wide media interest and the reaction of the club's supporters.
Cerezo did not stop at Alvarez. He turned to a more sensitive subject: the relationship with Barcelona. The backdrop was earlier criticism from chief executive Miguel Angel Gil Marin, who hit out at what he saw as a lack of respect from some clubs during negotiations in the transfer market.
Asked whether Barcelona specifically had behaved that way towards Atletico, the president answered without hesitation. "What I believe is that Barcelona did not rise to the level of the situation, and did not do what it usually does in such cases."
Tension between the two clubs, then, rumbles on after a summer of moves and negotiations that stirred plenty of controversy. Atletico want the Alvarez file closed for good and the striker's future settled inside Simeone's project. The institutional row with Barcelona, meanwhile, refuses to go away.