Arsenal
Arsenal’s Ambitious £60m Striker Swoop Thwarted Thanks To Chelsea
Arsenal’s attempts to pull-off a sensational £60m move for Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann have been thwarted by Chelsea. See why here.
The transfer window is now drawing to a close so we’ll bring you all the latest transfer rumours and gossip from around the globe. Today, news on Arsenal’s surprise pursuit of Antoine Griezmann…
Arsenal’s attempts to pull-off a sensational £60m move for Atletico Madrid’s Antoine Griezmann have been thwarted after Chelsea failed to sign Romelu Lukaku, according to Squawka journalist Greg Stobart.
Arsene Wenger has been widely critiscised by the fans for not signing a top class striker yet but Stobart claims that the Gunners boss has actually spent much of the summer working on a shock deal for Griezmann.
The journalist suggests that Arsenal were prepared to pay £60m to sign the Frenchman international and were led to believe that a deal was on the cards as long as Atletico were able to secure Diego Costa as a replacement.
The Brazilian-born hitman has been strongly linked with a move back to the Vicente Calderon but it’s understood Chelsea would only let Costa leave if they were able to lure Lukaku away from Everton.
However, the Blues have struggled to get a deal agreed with the Toffees so the Belgian international looks set to remain at Goodison Park meaning Costa won’t be joining Atletico, ending Arsenal’s hopes of signing Griezmann.
The news will come as a huge blow to Wenger as Squawka claim that Griezmann would have been open to the idea of moving to the Emirates, despite signing a new five-year deal with Altetico back in June that saw his buyout fee raise to £86m.
The 25-year-old would have been the marquee signing that Arsenal fans have been waiting for and could have turned them into realistic title challengers once more this season as Griezmann has become one of the best forwards in European football over the past couple of seasons.
He scored 32 goals in all competitions for Atletico last season and won Player of the Tournament at this summers Euro 2016 championships having led France to the final where they narrowly lost out to Portugal.
However, unless things change drastically over the closing week of the summer window, it looks as though Arsenal are going to once again fail to strengthen their strike-force as Wenger is refusing to spend big money for the sake of it.
The likes of Alexandre Lacazette are being valued at over £50m and quite rightly Wenger is refusing to pay that kind of money for a player that isn’t considered an elite level striker and didn’t even make it in to the French Euro 2016 squad.
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I’m sure Arsenal fans will be pleased that the club have been trying to sign a top class player like Griezmann but it will come as no comfort if they head in to September with just Olivier Giroud to rely on up front this season.
