Arsenal has been named as one of the teams that might sign Antoine Griezmann, who surprisingly faces the chop at Barcelona.
The Frenchman won the World Cup in 2018 and earned his big-money dream move to Barcelona.
He was the star of the team when he played for Atletico Madrid, but he has struggled to make an impression at Barcelona since he moved there.
This is his second season at Camp Nou and they expected him to have acclimatized to the new team and start to show his best form.
However, the Catalans are in crisis mode and he is one of the players that isn’t showing enough to be kept.
They have now elected a new president and Dario Gol says the Frenchman will be seen as surplus to requirements when Joan Laporta begins to rebuild the team.
If that happens, Arsenal would be more than happy to take him to London and he already has an offer on the table from them.
For now, the Gunners remain just one of his suitors because he wants to see what Barca will say about his future at the end of this season.
If he leaves Catalonia, he would also be keen to ensure that he plays for a top team, which means the Gunners would have to break into the top four to stand a chance of landing him.
that ship has likely sailed, as he no longer can justify his incredibly high wages…like him as a player, but he suffered at the hands of the same sort of tactical mismanagement we encountered under Wenger, when he would shoehorn Ozil or Ramsey out wide right…the old adage that any good footballer can play any position on the pitch is a foolhardy claim nowadays as the specialization of the sport and the exponential rise in transfer fees and wages are such that to make these types of “luxury” moves without taking into account how to best maximize the qualities of the player in question is, more often than not, a recipe for disaster
Arteta will never get a team matching his heart’s desire. We are not City or Chelsea and he is not Pep.
He should be working with Saliba, AMN, and Willock; not sending them on loan. He should be getting a tune out of Pepe after a year, not shoehorning Willian into the lineup.
Nketiah has not progressed, is Balogun possibly a player who can immediately contribute, or not?
Arteta & Edu should be focusing on talent available due to financial climate under covid, not busying themselves compiling a Christmas list for Santa Kronke.
Time to be a manager and not a shopper, time for both Edu & Arteta to focus on finishing the year strong as Wenger often did.
Again I ask, what are the goals for the year? Is there a standard to adhere to? What determines the year as a success or failure? Who, if anyone, will be held accountable? Does the blame fall solely on the players?
I believe the lack of clarity is by design; clarity got Wenger removed & Emery sacked. This provides a readymade excuse for owner, board, management, manager, everyone except players and fans.
Power has again been given to one person, except now minus any standards to gauge success or failure. Is this improvement? Is this true change at all?
Patience is the only goal, aimed at fans. 10 years of patience for Wenger, 18 months patience for Emery. Now seemingly unlimited patience with Arteta, despite having more talent and worse results.
Nearing 15 year’s worth of patience from fans, when is enough? When should patience turn to expectation?
I’m not Arteta in or Arteta out, I’m not Kronke in or out, I’m for ARSENAL, first and always.
It is up to owner, players, and Arteta to rise up to that standard, not lower ARSENAL down to theirs.
👍 Durand, an excellent summation.
Thank you Ozziegunner, I hope people give it an honest think before commenting.
I believe there is a valid point or 2 worth considering in my long-winded comment!
I second that!
just to piggyback on your analysis, the one thing we should have definitively learned from the latter Wenger era was that the complexities inherent within the modern football game make it exceedingly difficult for one individual to navigate successfully…once Dein had received his walking papers, regardless of the financial implications of our move to the Emirates, things were never the same
much like how Dein, upon surveying the changes that were ongoing at the time in the footballing world, sought out the services of Wenger, a relatively unknown entity, this club needed to find someone of his ilk who would then perform an exhaustive search for a managerial partner of sorts…someone who he could forge a partnership with, so that there was the necessary checks and balances
I truly believe that an innovative and relentless character like Dein, were they in our employ, would have examined trends within the wider sporting realms, which is exactly how the financial imperatives of Billy Beane’s Moneyball and the widespread usage of analytics made it’s way from MLB to the NBA
in fact, our situation is quite analogous to the present day world of the NFL, where recent rule changes involving the draft have had a major impact on team building…with clearly defined rules regarding what teams are required to pay their draft prospects, especially those like QB who were traditionally overcompensated yet rarely made a significant impact for a couple of years, teams now looked to draft players who they could start immediately, that way they could earmark the money they had saved towards more experienced/expensive players
in our case, we needed to adopt a similar approach where we utilized a better balance of young players on more wage friendly contracts who could start sooner and develop on the fly, like Saka, Marts, Balo, ESR etc…then you surround them with a good balance of high-end more veteran players who could be acquired due to the money the club was saving on their more youthful counterparts…then rinse and repeat, by selling off those players on higher contracts once you had developed a younger, cheaper option, while they still had some value in the open market
fact is if you want to be a world-class operation, you need to act like a world-class operation, which requires you to go the extra mile when it comes to figuring out the best way to maximize your particular set of circumstances…unfortunately I never got the sense that this club has been actively engaged in such extensive practices since the days of Wenger and Dein…I can only assume this has a lot to do with the general malaise that has beset this club since the arrival of our absentee landlord…after all, settling has a way of undermining the competitive drive that’s absolutely imperative for creating a winning culture
No no, no!
He is on a decline, won’t help Arsenal.
Fans are already complaining on pensioners Lacazette (29yo) and Auba (32yo) age
Now fans wants the club to sign a 30yo Grizemann……
Hell No!
A definite ‘No’ to Griezmann. It’s not necessarily his age I’m concerned about but more his ability to bring anything special to our team. Will he be up for a fight in the rough and tumble of the Premier League. Will he want to go to Southampton on a cold, rainy Tuesday for a bit of kick, bite and bollock. Is he the player to unlock doors of oppositions defences. He’s enjoyed playing football in leagues where most of the opposition will allow you the time and space to work your magic and look a million dollars over here and, as Ozil discovered time on the ball and space is a luxury not afforded in the EPL and you won’t be able to produce the magic you could previously. He’ll be just another journeyman looking to add to his pension pot. He’d only be signed because of his name and past glories and in the hope other teams will be awestruck by his arrival. He would fast experience what happened to Ozil and unfortunately, seemingly, what’s happening to Aubamayang !