River Plate appear to have conceded defeat in their attempts to keep Julian Alvarez at the club beyond the summer.
Manchester City signed Alvarez in January, with the Argentine international staying on loan at River until the end of the season in order to play in the Copa Libertadores. There had been suggestions from Argentina, though, that River could attempt to keep Alvarez even longer until the end of their possible Libertadores campaign - a timeframe that could run up to the World Cup in December.
However, City have been clear that they plan for Alvarez to join Pep Guardiola's squad in July for pre-season, with the manager himself explaining on multiple occasions that he expects to assess Alvarez ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.
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Now, River vice-president Matias Patanian has effectively confirmed that they are set to lose Alvarez before City's pre-season gets underway.
He told River El Mas Grande : "Everything seems to indicate that he is leaving in June, we must be prepared for that.”
Last week, club president Jorge Brito had told Tyc Sports that River will still try to extend Alvarez's loan until City inform them otherwise of their plans.
“Because of comments that we have already heard from Guardiola himself and those that they make to us, we always have to analyse the worst scenario from the sporting point of view and that is that he leaves in July,” he was quoted as saying.
Watch Alvarez's latest assist for River Plate:
“Formally, they will inform us about the date, but from the gesture and the conversation, everything would indicate that Julián is going to leave in the middle of the year. We are going to give the battle until the last minute, but we cannot go against what was agreed and the player’s career.”
Alvarez has scored five goals and registered two assists for River in 13 games this season, which runs from February. He grabbed an assist in Wednesday's Libertadores 2-1 win away to Colo Colo as they kept up their 100 per cent record in the group stage from three games.
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