Atletico Madrid rule out 'helping Barca' and will not sell Morata to them

The January transfer window is coming to an end. Five days remain and tension remains at Barcelona, who have plenty of options in terms of new signings. One of those is Alvaro Morata. 

When Morata seemed least likely to move to Barcelona, his current club Juventus reached an agreement with Dusan Vlahovic of Fioretnina to sign him in the January window. That gave the Catalans the opportunity to sign the Spain international. It is yet to be made official, but everything seems to suggest that the Serbian will join Juventus.

For this deal to happen, Barcelona had to sort out the Dembele saga. In order to meet Financial Fair Play rules, the Frenchman had to renew after taking a pay cut or leave before the end of January. Both things, at the moment, seem unlikely. 

However, Atletico Madrid are also involved in this situation. Morata is still their player, but he is on loan at Atletico Madrid so they will have the final word on a hypothetical transfer. And they are not keen on it. 

'AS' said that Atletico Madrid do not want to strengthen Barcelona, who they consider to be a direct rival for a Champions League spot. There is just one point between the two sides and they are the defending champions. They are fourth after 21 matches. 

That is why Alvaro Morata's move has become complicated and Juventus could end up with both the Spaniard and Vlahovic in their squad as well as Dybala and company. Some may consider it to be surprising by Atletico given Barca's 'favours' in the last two summers. 

The first was in 2020 when Barca oddly sold Luis Suarez who ended up scoring 21 goals for Atletico Madrid that season. Those goals ended up helping Atletico Madrid win the league. The player cost six million euros plus his salary.

The following summer, Antoine Griezmann ended his time at the Camp Nou and returned to the Wanda. He had previously left the club to join Barca in the 2018-19 season. The Catalans paid 120 million euros for the Frenchman and last summer, they loaned him to Atletico with an option to buy for 40 million euros. A considerable loss.

Two signings which favoured Atletico Madrid as the first helped them win the title while the second saw them make 80 million euros profit. 'Los Colchoneros' are now the main obstacle to Alvaro Morata playing for Barca this season.