Arsenal Transfer Rumors: Antoine Griezmann Requires Huge Sacrifices

Arsenal has to find a way to make progress after another disappointing season, but turning to Antoine Griezmann requires massive sacrifices.

Arsenal has always seemed destine to unite with Antoine Griezmann, even in light of the Frenchman’s flirtatious interactions with Manchester United. His ongoing relationship with Arsene Wenger and the type of game that he plays (as well as his nationality) just hinted at the inevitable.

While no rumors are picking up again – in fact, Griezmann has irritably shot down the United rumors – the link to Arsenal is always present. Griezmann has said that he wants to go to England at some point and that is always going to raise flags. Good flags.

But no matter what Griezmann brings to the club, his arrival is going to be met with massive sacrifices within the squad. That is, unless the board changes their tune.

Griezmann is a massive world superstar. He isn’t going to come to Arsenal for the wages that the board want to pay. He isn’t going to accept anything under£200,000 and it would likely have to touch much higher up on the spectrum, nearer £300,000.

Those kinds of wages require massive cuts within the club – again, assuming the board stays on this stubborn course they have laid out.

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And knowing that the Gunners (more specifically, Wenger) are not going to cut average contributors like Theo Walcott, that new chunk of wages required to land someone like Griezmann is going to have to come from something more like Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.

Which defeats the point entirely. The trouble that the Gunners have is that they have a couple really fantastic players and a lot of solid, yet inconsistent ones. In order to move forward, they have to get one or two more fantastic players to compliment their current cast.

Griezmann is not going to lift this team on his own. If Alexis couldn’t do it, the Frenchman certainly can’t. And we know Ozil can’t do it by himself. But put these three together and suddenly you have the finisher in Griezmann, who is a class striker through and through, the workhorse in Alexis who can do everything, and the creator in Ozil.

That is something that would translate from paper to pitch seamlessly.

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But, naturally, the problem is the cost. If the board won’t pay Ozil and Alexis what they want, then, unless they shed their current superstars, they aren’t going to get any new ones.

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