Arsenal: Antoine Griezmann Pursuit Shows Wenger’s Weakness

Arsenal’s search for a striker died out this summer and according to reports, that’s because of Antoine Griezmann. Which showcases Wenger’s weakness.

Arsenal’s five year search for a complimentary striker for Giroud has seen many names turn up. Edinson Cavani, Karim Benzema and, of course Alexandre Lacazette are among them. There have always been options, just clearly not the options that Arsene Wenger sees as the perfect fit. He has always had other ideas.

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This summer has been no different. With Arsenal clearly needing a striker, lest they are forced to rely on Alexis or Walcott, Wenger has yet again come up empty handed. However, that doesn’t mean he hasn’t been trying.

According to various reports, Wenger has been almost exclusively pursuing the superstar Frenchman Antoine Griezmann and was fully prepared to spend upwards of £60m on him, yet that total proved inadequate.

While most people probably find  it unbelievable, I don’t. Wenger’s claim that he will spend big money on the perfect candidate has often been vindicated. The problem is that he would have to spend near £90m to land Griezmann, which, of course, is far and away beyond the valuation that Wenger and his crew have made for the Frenchman.

This reported pursuit and subsequent failure highlight one of Wenger’s biggest transfer weaknesses. And I’m not referring to his inability to draw superstars. He can still do that. I am also not referring to his inability to spend money. He still does that too.

I am referring to his inability to multitask on transfers.

I agree that Griezmann is the be all, end all of Arsenal transfer rumors. He is absolutely perfect for the club. I wouldn’t be surprised if, when Wenger inevitably lands Griezmann in the next couple years (see what I did there?), he doesn’t reveal that this has been the plan all along, and we’ve just been waiting.

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But that is a major problem. Wenger seems only capable of focusing on one transfer at a time. When the Vardy deal was stalling, Le Prof was patiently waiting for a reply when he could have been negotiating with any number of available strikers.

We are seeing the same with Shkodran Mustafi. The German looks like the perfect solution, but Wenger has been so focused on him that all other deals have seemingly stalled due to a lack of attention and now that the Mustafi deal is stalling too, no other deals look to be on the brink of completion.

There have to be fall backs. Arsenal carries with it the prestige to draw a good majority of players, but not everyone is going to drop everything and come on over. There have to be alternatives and Wenger doesn’t operate like that.

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Supporters always joke on Twitter and tell each other to “get back to Football Manager” but I feel like that’s what Wenger has going. He has this unrealistic image in his head of what he wants and simply nothing else will do.