Antoine Griezmann

I don’t want to start to believe this. No no!

Wenger, the dinosaur he may well be, has been chasing a top quality striker for 3 seasons now. Higuain, Suarez and Benzema have all been on his radar and we’ve missed out on all three of them. I honestly think Wenger is not reluctant to activate the release clause of Griezmann and providing he has the backing of the board - he will do it this summer.

Said a long time ago there is a reason why we are not bidding for the likes of Lacazette that i feel we have been going after Griezmann or Lewandowski and a lot of people scoffed…now it comes to light we have being trying to get it done. Not saying we WILL get it done but i thought we were after a big name.

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Which of course means we won’t get him.

Same as with the other targets we had in the last couple of the years this is yet again one that should have been done in the first 2 months and not dragged our whole transfer business into the last week of the window. If this ultimately doesn’t happen, there’s really no reason why we shouldn’t have picked one of the more promising players earlier, instead of going for the emergency option late in the window or even delay the whole thing for another year. With Wenger’s recent comments about Alexis in mind he could be easily trying to do the same he did with Walcott last season and experiment with playing him upfront for a little longer.

Wenger likes to be linked with top class strikers just to placate the supporters but when has he ever spent more than 15m on a striker?

If he thinks being linked to, or interested in or enquired about, is going to wash over people yet again, he is madder than I thought.

To anyone thinking Wenger is going to splash out 80m on Griezman, he isn’t.

We might get a CB, and an underwhelming striker, but I doubt it.

It’ll be Giroud, then Welbeck will come back like a new signing, and then he will stick with the CB’s we have, unless he can get a world class talent like Jonny Evans to come here.

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and what is the plan B and how long you wait for your plan a to work ? till deadline day ?

When it comes to Griezmann, I doubt his price is more of an issue than him needing to be completely off his head to willingly swap Atletico for Arsenal.

If £80m was the only factor between this being a done deal or not, I don’t think Wenger would hesitate.

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Why are you asking me this and directing this at me, all I stated was that I had a feeling we were in for a big name…its not up to me what their plans are…they probably went all in and were let down but were thinking they wanted an elite player.

why not ?

if he moves to arsenal then arsenal will become a bigger and stronger team than Atletico

yes at this stage we are not of their level but take griezman off from them and add it to Arsenal… it becomes a completely different story

I don’t want to crap in everyone’s Cheerios but I think this could be a smokescreen for Benzema and I’d prefer that. Griezemann to Real is the domino that falls and a good deal on Benzema for us is the end result.

we arent getting any… in fact i will be surprised if we sign more than one player in these last 7 days

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This is exactly the same as last year, except instead of spending all summer chasing a fat french striker we’re now chasing a skinny french striker.

Progress.

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or may be all these are lies… arsenal were never interested in buying but just keeping the gullible fans happy ?

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I did some research on this Griezmann contract extension and Wenger’s intention to buy him.
Correct me if I am wrong.

News saying that, Wenger spent his whole summer trying to make a bid on Griezmann, around 60m euro.
However, back in June, Griezmann had already signed a contract extension till 2021, and his release clause was raised from 60m to 85 euro.
If the extension was signed in June, my questions would be:

1/ why did Wenger/Arsenal think 60m euro was still enough when the release clause was updated to 85m?
2/ if Wenger/Arsenal did prepared 85m for the release clause, how were they going to lure Antoine here after he just signed an extension? Obviously his heart was on Atleti?
3/ why didn’t Wenger/Arsenal act sooner, before the price went up to 85m?
4/ if the summer here means June for Wenger/Arsenal, what was our plan B? Just a few more days before deadline and we are still window shopping and look for discount/leftovers (Mustafi fiesta is a good example recently)??

I never doubt Wenger’s intention. He wants great player(s) and that’s for sure. But intention alone won’t get the deals done.

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Not a chance of this happening.

And for the record, I’d prefer the accessory to blackmail that is Karim Benzema (if it’s between the two).

But really, this is like a homeless man debating with himself whether he wants a Ferrari or a Lambo - waste of time even considering the question.

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I really can’t see this.

There are other players as good this season and last season and Wenger has never shown any interest or made an attempt to spend that sort of money.

He has never spent what it takes to get the best players.
Ozil and Sanchez were both players that the selling clubs didn’t want and although we were looking for a striker they were too good to turn down for the money that was being asked for them.

If Wenger was really that interested in Griezman, he could have had him last season for around 50m, so why didn’t he go for him then rather than waiting for his price to go up.

Wenger has never spent big on a striker, and if he spends more than half of the 80m being quoted for Griezman, I would be surprised.

I don’t think he was genuinely that interested, at that price, but he likes to be linked with big signings even though Welbeck is still his biggest signing for a striker, for about 16m.[quote=“ronniec, post:115, topic:451”]

I never doubt Wenger’s intention. He wants great player(s) and that’s for sure. But intention alone won’t get the deals done.
[/quote]His intention to get the best player at a price he wants to pay.
I don’t think he shows that much determination, to buy the best players at the price they are worth, instead he would rather do it on the cheap.

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this is bullshit that we waited for griezmann… if we were waiting for him then why did we go for vardy ? and why didnt we go for anyone else after vardy refused to join arsenal ?

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I dont think people scoffed at your suggestion, they scoffed at the idea that we might be able to achieve it.

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not necessarily. Griezmann plays mainly on the wing not upfront but interchanges positions a lot…always the possibility of going for a striker and a winger and then sold off players like walcott, but hasnt gone to plan.