‘Never, never, never’ reads a headline from Marca on Tuesday, with a big picture of Antoine Griezmann.
It sounds like it’s going to be a negative story about a potential move to Barcelona, but the Spanish newspaper actually report ‘everything points’ to the Atletico Madrid player moving to the Camp Nou.
The transfer is simply ‘a matter of time’, and things can start moving from July when the Frenchman’s buyout clause reduces to €120m.
Josep Maria Bartomeu has recently denied any move from Barcelona to sign Griezmann, and specifically denied that the club have had an agreement with the player since March.
Marca say the Barca president has ‘no choice’ than to say this in public, because he could leave his club open to sanctions if it’s admitted they’ve been trying to sign a player without the permission of his current employer.
Barcelona, like Real Madrid often do, want to tread carefully here, in contrast, for example, to Bayern Munich, who have made no secret of their efforts to convince Leroy Sane to join them.It’s stated Neymar isn’t an option, despite Barcelona fans thought to be keen on his return, and that selling Nelson Semedo isn’t something the club are planning to do.
