Raghavendra Goudar
Manchester United make enquiry for Barcelona star Antoine Griezmann
According to a report from Mundo Deportivo (h/t Express), Manchester United have approached La Liga champions Barcelona over the possibility of signing out-of-favour forward Antoine Griezmann. However, the club face three obstacles in the pursuit of the Frenchman.
Griezmann completed a big-money move from Atletico Madrid to Barcelona last summer. But it hasn’t gone according to plans for the 2018 FIFA World Cup winner. The 29-year-old has featured 43 times in all competitions for the Catalans, managing 14 goals and 4 assists.
Griezmann has struggled for form and confidence during his time at Camp Nou. And the fact that manager Quique Setien brought him on in the 90th minute when his club were chasing a goal against Atletico earlier this week highlights his current standing at the club.
As a result, the Frenchman is ready to consider a move away and would be open to joining Manchester United. This seems to have alerted the Red Devils as well, with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hinting at adding a new forward this summer.
As per the aforementioned report, Manchester United have already made an enquiry over the possibility of signing Griezmann. However, there are three problems for the deal to go through. (h/t Express)
The first issue, as per the report, is that Barcelona are not very keen on offloading the 29-year-old as of yet. While they will be needing to sell some players to ensure no FFP violations are made, they are more inclined to selling Ousmane Dembele and Philippe Coutinho over Griezmann.
The second obstacle is the interest from our arch-rivals Manchester City. It is claimed that the Cityzens too have made initial enquiries over the possibility of signing Griezmann this summer. (h/t Express)
And the final hurdle would be the club’s finances. Barcelona, having paid £107m for Griezmann only a year ago, would want to recoup most of the fee. (h/t Express)
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However, Manchester United CEO Ed Woodward has made it clear that big-money signings might not happen this summer. In fact, the Red Devils have taken the stance of not paying more than £50m for top target Jadon Sancho and are likely to take a similar stance on Griezmann as well. (h/t Express)
It will be interesting to see if the supposed interest in Griezmann leads to anything substantial in the coming weeks.
