Arsenal: Alexis Replacing Antoine Griezmann The Cruelest Irony

Arsenal looks to be missing out on Antoine Griezmann yet again, while in the mean time Atletico Madrid are swooping for Alexis. Cruelty incarnate.

Arsenal has always seemed destined to unite with Antoine Griezmann at some point. He has been very open in his desire to come to the Premier League down the road and his amicable relationship with Arsene Wenger is pretty widely known.

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However, the longer he stays at Atletico Madrid, the less likely it seems to become. Now, it is looking more likely that Jose Mourinho uses Paul Pogba’s influence to land the French striker and united the Hollywood duo.

Which would mean that Atletico Madrid would be on the lookout for an ample replacement to take the Frenchman’s place.

According to recent reports, their ideal replacement is Alexis Sanchez.

I can think of no crueler form of irony then seeing Griezmann going to Manchester United and having Alexis Sanchez shipped off to Griezmann’s old stomping grounds to replace him.

For starters, there was chatter that if Alexis were to leave the Emirates in the summer, then it would be Antoine Griezmann who replaces him. Which seemed like a fair trade off. No one wants to lose Alexis, but if we have to replace him with anyone, Griezmann is a damn fine choice.

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I even wrote a debate piece between who I would rather have, Griezmann or Alexis. It all pointed to a likely scenario where Arsenal would have one or the other – or in the best case scenario, both.

But with United stepping in, preparing to offer him the same ridiculous sum of money that they are paying the human highlighter, Paul Pogba, all hope is hanging on by a thread. Griezmann did mildly snap the other day, saying that he didn’t like talking about his next move, which makes me think that maybe he’s been thinking about it so much that he just doesn’t want to anymore.

Which could be incredibly good or incredibly bad. One or the other. Wenger is always going to be keeping tabs on Griezmann, but he isn’t going to push the envelope like Mourinho would. He isn’t going to pull out all the stops to lure him away.

Wenger waits for the perfect chance to swoop. Mourinho just knocks down the wall and calls it the perfect opening.

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Seeing Griezmann go to United would be bad enough. But for Alexis to ship off to Spain to replace him would be unbearable.

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