Barcelona's summer transfer opera explained

#3 Antoine Greizmann

Griezmann rejected Barcelona last season by making a video 'La decision'

Last season, Antoine Griezmann was about to join Barcelona only for him to release the 'The Decision' video and announce his stay at Atletico Madrid. But after his team crashed out of the Champions League, reports from France suggested Barcelona might be back for the forward in the summer again. A month later, Atletico Madrid posted a video in which Griezmann stated his decision to leave the club in the summer with Barcelona as the fore-runners.

Since then, nothing much has happened. The Catalan media has suggested that Griezmann to Barcelona is 50-50. There are apparently 3 main reasons for this. The first one is obviously the dressing room. The core group didn't like that Griezmann rejected the club's offer last summer and the board knows if the player is eventually brought it could making the dressing room atmosphere negative. Also, the forward will cost €120 million which is very high for a 28-year-old even in this inflated market. Again, the player is reported to earn around €17 million per year making him one of the highest paid players of the squad. The wage bill already accounts for nearly 85% of the clubs income and they logically can't really afford him.

Cadena SER (a radio station in Barcelona), a highly reliable source for Barcelona-related information, reported that Antoine Griezmann and Barcelona reached an agreement in March 2019 already. But now have backtracked in recent weeks due to the reasons stated above.

Griezmann has already announced that he will be leaving Atletico in the summer and his club knows there is no back-tracking. PSG can't afford him due to Financial Fair Play rules and Manchester City have already ruled themselves out of the transfer. This leaves Barcelona as the only club interested in the player and could be a tactic by the club to reduce the asking price for the player.