Arsenal: Surely Antoine Griezmann Isn’t Impossible

Why should Arsenal have to settle for anything less than then best? If Antoine Griezmann is the best possible fit, then let’s go get him.

Arsenal’s striker rumors are dying quicker than flies at a bonfire. It got to the point where I was digging through footage, looking for someone for Arsenal to pursue. Perhaps there shouldn’t be any digging through. Perhaps if the best striker for the job is out there, he should be bought, no matter the price.

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Naturally, I am speaking of Antoine Griezmann and the transfer to end all transfers.

Everyone is saying Griezmann has no reason to leave. That he has everything he could ever want or need at Atletico. Sure, fine. Believe that if you want. But Atletico is a defensive-oriented team. Griezmann has to realize that with Ozil and Alexis and even Giroud, who created three goals for him at the Euros, that his personal production could go through the roof.

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I know I am often advocating for a departure from massive egos, but for once, I want someone to embrace his ego. I want Griezmann to look at the position he is in and think, ‘you know what, it can get better, I can do bigger things.’ Because at Arsenal, he can.

“On a personal level, I would like to improve my goal scoring, minutes played, matches played, assists,” Griezmann said, upon signing his new Atletico deal, in reference to Atletico. But that objective can be made much more attainable at a club that would have the offense to support it. Arsenal scored two more goals than Atletico last season, but keep in mind that was with Olivier Giroud and a hell of a lot more opposition.

Wenger got Alexis, Ozil and Xhaka to buy into his vision and that was after a decade of no silverware. Alexis and Ozil were both from La Liga giants with ‘nothing to gain’ at Arsenal and both seemed completely unattainable.

For Alexis, the reasoning was that he wasn’t playing as much as he would have liked, but Ozil was a key figure at Real Madrid.

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And don’t try to say that Griezmann is too big for Arsenal. Alexis and Ozil were both bigger when they came over and if it wasn’t for Olivier Giroud, Griezmann wouldn’t even have his cute little golden boot trophy, because Giroud created half of his goals.

My question is, is there any price that is too much for the perfect fit? Wenger paid full price for Xhaka because he believed he was the perfect fit for the club. He went all out and promised him the world.

Even if Griezmann is going to cost £80m, can we really gripe? I’ll bet that juicy new contract of his has a release clause. Everyone seems to have one these days. There is a price for everything.

And that’s another thing, this new contract may be deterring, but contracts don’t mean what they used to either. Pedro signed a new four-year deal with Barcelona before promptly moving to Chelsea and immediately regretting it.

It wasn’t all that long ago that Griezmann’s agent Eric Olhats, issued this delicious little statement: “Contrary to certain claims announcing that Antoine at Atletico next season will be the case without fail, nothing has been decided or endorsed. We are currently listening to different clubs who also offer real interest and attraction.”

That was in March. Of this year. So yeah, a contract looks cool and all, but don’t pretend like it’s written in stone. Of course, even if it was, stone can be destroyed.

Griezmann isn’t immune to moving elsewhere. His agent made that clear. It may cost a ridiculous amount of money, but when you look at what Giroud and Griezmann were able to accomplish at the Euros (except for in the final, when Giroud was taken off, which lead to Griezmann’s disappearance), shouldn’t there be a bit of urgency from Wenger to make that happen at Arsenal (except for the losing in the finals part)?

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Anyway, now that that’s out of my system, I’ll stop dreaming, step down off of my soap box, turn off FIFA 16 and go back to wondering why Arsenal won’t sign Wissam Ben-Yedder, aka, the Tunisian Griezmann.