Reports: Barcelona to offer higher wages to Antoine Griezmann than Manchester United 

What's the story?

Ah, Money.

With every little shred of conservatism and penny-pinching thrown out of the window thanks to the excesses of Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Liverpool and Manchester United, amongst others, the kind of money floating around in the market is quite scary.

So when there's talk of both Manchester United and Barcelona meeting an £86 million release clause, there's hardly a pause before we accept that it could be happening as we read it.

The release clause in question, is for Atletico Madrid's Antoine Griezmann and while there were earlier reports that United were going to win the battle by offering him the highest wages on offer in the Premier League, the folk over at Cadena Ser, via the Sun, report that the Catalans have got the upper edge in convincing Griezmann to join by offering him a five-year £425,000 -a-week deal, the same as Luis Suarez and only behind the untouchable Lionel Messi.

In case you didn't know...

United came close to signing the Frenchman in the summer - this season itself - but the Frenchman refused the move citing Atletico's transfer ban and saying that it would be improper on his part to move when his club was in no place to replace him.

Now that the ban has ended - and Diego Costa has returned to become the pivot of Atletico's attack - Griezmann is reconsidering his options.

The heart of the matter

All three parties involved want Griezmann - Atletico convinced that they have a (league) winning partnership in the Frenchman and Costa, United convinced that he and Paul Pogba will bring the best out of each other, and Barca convinced that they really need to go the Galactico way to guarantee success and ensure that their £280 odd million outlay this season (~140mn on Coutinho and ~140mn incl. add-ons for Dembele) doesn't go to waste

Video

Here's Griezmann doing his thing:

You can see what the fuss is all about, neh?

Author's Take

Barcelona seem to be on a mission to stamp their authority on the transfer market once again after being back-handed by PSG in the summer (and Liverpool too, come to think of it) and if they are really interested in Griezmann, they may well convince the Frenchman to stay put in La Liga and hop on over to Catalunya.