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

Despite the fact Barcelona have ended up helping direct rival Atletico Madrid to strengthen by giving them Luis Suarez in 2020 and Antoine Griezmann in 2021, Atletico Madrid do not want to follow that formula, so Morata's move to the Catalan capital has become more complicated.

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.