Antoine Griezmann Signs For FC Barcelona

[ScoRoss]

 

[Smiley Culture]

He’s released a video via Atleti’s Twitter confirming he’s off. 

[ScoRoss]

Just now, Smiley Culture said:

He’s released a video via Atleti’s Twitter confirming he’s off. 

Didn't he do something similar last year, or am I confusing it with someone else?

[Cicero]

 

[El Profesor]

6 minutes ago, ScoRoss said:

Didn't he do something similar last year, or am I confusing it with someone else?

 

Yes. He did a documentary to announce his decision to stay at Atleti.

He´s probably going to Barça and I wonder what that means for Dembélé.

[El Profesor]

2 hours ago, Cannabis said:

Rumour has it that Coutinho to PSG will fund the deal. Obviously Dembele will stay but this will pretty much he the end for Malcom.

I´m not sure about Dembélé staying. Last season when Malcom was bought he reportedly wanted a guarantee from the board he´d be a starter. With Griezmann coming, he could ask to be sold. 

[Harry]

9 hours ago, Cannabis said:

Rumour has it that Coutinho to PSG will fund the deal. Obviously Dembele will stay but this will pretty much he the end for Malcom.

Are we sure PSG are that stupid? Or are they trying to do barca a favour to ease the bad blood?

[SirBalon]

11 hours ago, ScoRoss said:

Didn't he do something similar last year, or am I confusing it with someone else?

Yep, a documentary as @El Profesor said and it caused a storm not only because of that but because Gerard Piqué's production company created it.

[Danny]

Surely 2/3 of Suarez, Coutinho and Dembele will be off?

[Lucas]

One of the most boring transfer stories to come out so far along with Hazard to Madrid.

Both will inevitably happen and both are probably at least a season overdue.

Be glad when both are confirmed and sorted so we can all move on with our lives.

[SirBalon]

11 minutes ago, Danny said:

Surely 2/3 of Suarez, Coutinho and Dembele will be off?

Anything is possible, but I really can't see Luis Suárez departing unless another 9 is detected and I don't see where that would come from in Suárez' category.

Dembélé is a very difficult one to read because his talent is awesome, on another level but he is extremely indisciplined in many areas which has brought the wrath of the club and even his colleagues upon him, some of them went vocal during the first half of this season in press conferences. He also gets injured alot and one could say it's harsh to throw this last one at him but many sources say many of his muscle injuries he has had are due to his lifestyle which is something that's controlled to the max at the club. Finally with Ousmane and his character... He is very indifferent to life and apparently to his career, where he acts very childish with examples of missing training and pretending he is ill. So there is a lot to weigh-up there with Dembélé because a football club isn't junior school, it's a professional environment with objectives to fulfill without any concessions which he has actually received.

Lastly, Coutinho... He has failed, or maybe better said, those in the technical side of things at boardroom level failed! He doesn't provide anything other than the odd spectacular goal to the overall game play at Barcelona. He infact stunts Barça's game as he doesn't have the tools to understand and execute how his colleagues play with automatisms. He has unjustifiably been on the end of a lot of flack from the Barcelona fans at the Camp Nou because of this and the reality is that he didn't deceive anyone because he is what he's always been, what he is. As I said, it's the technical director for football and his team that should be questioned because the signing of Phillipe Coutinho wasn't a spur of the moment thing, Barça had been following him closely for three years, even as far back as when he was on loan at Espanyol. Money will be lost there without a doubt.

[Harry]

1 hour ago, SirBalon said:

Anything is possible, but I really can't see Luis Suárez departing unless another 9 is detected and I don't see where that would come from in Suárez' category.

Dembélé is a very difficult one to read because his talent is awesome, on another level but he is extremely indisciplined in many areas which has brought the wrath of the club and even his colleagues upon him, some of them went vocal during the first half of this season in press conferences. He also gets injured alot and one could say it's harsh to throw this last one at him but many sources say many of his muscle injuries he has had are due to his lifestyle which is something that's controlled to the max at the club. Finally with Ousmane and his character... He is very indifferent to life and apparently to his career, where he acts very childish with examples of missing training and pretending he is ill. So there is a lot to weigh-up there with Dembélé because a football club isn't junior school, it's a professional environment with objectives to fulfill without any concessions which he has actually received.

Lastly, Coutinho... He has failed, or maybe better said, those in the technical side of things at boardroom level failed! He doesn't provide anything other than the odd spectacular goal to the overall game play at Barcelona. He infact stunts Barça's game as he doesn't have the tools to understand and execute how his colleagues play with automatisms. He has unjustifiably been on the end of a lot of flack from the Barcelona fans at the Camp Nou because of this and the reality is that he didn't deceive anyone because he is what he's always been, what he is. As I said, it's the technical director for football and his team that should be questioned because the signing of Phillipe Coutinho wasn't a spur of the moment thing, Barça had been following him closely for three years, even as far back as when he was on loan at Espanyol. Money will be lost there without a doubt.

Can you realistically see Barca bringing in Griezmann and two Ajax players in the one summer mate? How could three such high value recruits be afforded?

[SirBalon]

42 minutes ago, Harry said:

Can you realistically see Barca bringing in Griezmann and two Ajax players in the one summer mate? How could three such high value recruits be afforded?

It's the question everyone is asking as they're all to tier value players. Some are suggesting various sales.

[Stan]

3 minutes ago, José said:

Atletico Madrid will sign Mexico international Hector Herrera on a free transfer this summer, while his Porto teammates defenders Felipeand Alex Telles are also close to following, a source close to the Portuguese club has told ESPN FC.

Atletico are getting the best deal out of all this. 

Cou, Umtiti, rakitic, back up Dutch gk( heading to benfica) dembele, and Malcom will most likely get sold. 

Can't disagree here really. There's 3 quality players there. 

Snapping up 3 Porto players though . It's like Liverpool cherry-picking Southampton players.

[Cicero]

Barca need to worry about appointing a manager and sacking Valverde vs which players they bring in. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

If I were an Atletico fan I’d hate this twat. That egotistical fucking documentary about how he’s staying... only to fuck off a year later? And to join the side that literally always wins the league over Atletico... what a massive cunt

[Carnivore Chris]

Coutinho and even Suarez should be sold way before Dembele if you ask me.

[Carnivore Chris]

4 hours ago, Cicero said:

Barca need to worry about appointing a manager and sacking Valverde vs which players they bring in. 

 

[ScoRoss]

21 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

If I were an Atletico fan I’d hate this twat. That egotistical fucking documentary about how he’s staying... only to fuck off a year later? And to join the side that literally always wins the league over Atletico... what a massive cunt

Seems there is a second one coming...

[SirBalon]

1 hour ago, ScoRoss said:

Seems there is a second one coming...

Yep... Heard about this last night on Spanish radio. It was apparently Barça who alerted Atlético Madrid after they found out that Piqué was planning another release of the documentary. They called Piqué into the club offices to quiz him on it. Piqué was warned last summer not to et involved in anything like that again and it seems he didn’t take heed. 

[SirBalon]

So the latest is quite a weird one if it's to be believed...

According to two Spanish sports newspapers, one based in Barcelona (SPORT) and the other in Madrid (MARCA), the Barcelona dressing room (the heavywieghts) have made their opinion known to the club board where the until now very likely signing of Antoine Griezmann is concerned.

According to journalists from both newspapers the dressing room do not want the France international to be a part of the team. The reasons are mainly based on the manner in which he announced his decision last summer to stay at Atlético Madrid with that infamous documentary when the World Cup in Russia had already started one day before France's opening game. The documentary titled 'The Decision' was in the opinion of the players a very disrespectful and selfish act for everyone involved from his club, Atlético Madrid, his national team France who had to endure the speculation and all the questions from the press being focused on his future instead of the openeing game in the World Cup and obviously the way he had played with FC Barcelona, all involved being treated as a secondary issue in his personal uncertain future at the time.

Some of the Barcelona players have also made it known that there are other areas which need seeing to and not so much the attack with the De Jong signing having fixed the midfield issue and another centre-back and right-back required. In the opinion of these journalists Griezmann doesn't fit the requirements as a Barcelona attacker.

How true all of this is is unknown and sounds incredibly detailed for it to be true. There have been two other clubs heavily interested in Griezmann which are Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain, but both have gone public via their respective head coaches over the past two days to disassociate themselves from any possible move for the France international. In the case of PSG it is strange that they've been vocal because they are known to have met up with the player's representatives on two occasions over the past two weeks.

This is basically what they're saying while yesterday Diego Simeone in a press conference for the final La Liga game of the season more or less let slip that Antoine could be going to Barça!

So what's true is unknown right now, but the stories are very strong for them not to have any truth to them at all. I guess we'll find out in the coming days.

[Cicero]

Quote

Atletico's CEO has confirmed Griezmann will play at Barcelona next season. 

 

[Stan]

Known since March apparently

 

 

[SirBalon]

If Gil Marín says it, then it's done. I personally hope it's true because he offers a lot of what's required up front for Barcelona. Quality, goals and damned hard work. He's a player that would walk into any first XI in Europe and aside from his odd personality, I love his football.

[SirBalon]

Coming back to what’s going on in the Antoine Griezmann saga, there’s news...

Amazingly both FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid who have a great relationship historically have gotten together to do a deal and negotiate instead of Barça paying the buy-out clause of €120m after July 1st. 

It’s known that Atleti are currently negotiating with Benfica for the acquisition of João Félix and that this will set Atlético back a supposed €126m. Well the plan is for Barcelona to pay slightly over that buy-out clause stipulation by €6m and in so doing paying for the amount João Félix would cost and in so doing balance out Atleti’s worries on further signings with their limit reaching FFP issues. They would be able to ignore the signing from Benfica and continue without restrictions on further summer signings. There is a further plus for both Barcelona and Atlético Madrid in that they would bypass further taxes on the transfer with the Spanish fiscal system.