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Giroud replacement? Arsenal battle Man Utd for world class attacker

By on October 7, 2016

Antoine Griezmann has once again been linked with a move to Arsenal with the Sun reporting that we’re battling it out with Manchester United and Chelsea over the £89.3m-rated Atletico Madrid star.

Griezmann was linked with a move to the Emirates during the summer transfer window when Arsene Wenger was desperately trying to bring in a world class striker but our ambitious attempts to lure him to north London failed.

However, shortly after the close of the transfer window, the 25-year-old’s future at the Vicente Calderon was thrown in to doubt after Griezmann admitted he would consider a move if boss Diego Simeone was to leave the club.

This admission was done after Simeone took the strange decision to reduce his contract with Atletico by two years to 2018 and Griezmann then sacked his agent and hired his father as his new representative leading to even further speculation he was gearing up for a move.

It looks like the uncertainty has alerted Arsenal once again as the Sun name us as one of the clubs who are keen on signing Griezmann if he does look for a new challenge at the end of the season.

Arsene Wenger is a known fan of the striker and I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d love to see him come to Arsenal. We’ve seen what a difference playing Sanchez through the middle has done to our attack but can you imagine if we threw Griezmann in to the mix?

A front four of Sanchez, Ozil, Walcott and Griezmann would be a match for any side, that’s for sure. Giroud looks to have lost his place and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his last year with Arsenal and Griezmann would be the ideal replacement.

However, obviously it’s not going to be an easy deal to pull off as the Sun claim that Chelsea are also keen while Manchester United feel they may have a trump card up their sleeve in the form of Paul Pogba as the midfielder has become great friends with Griezmann and they apparently hope he’ll help lure the attacker to Old Trafford.

I’m not particularly worried about that but what I am concerned about is Griezmann’s price-tag. His buyout clause is worth £89.3m and I don’t think we’d be able to compete at that kind of money.

Sure, we have millions in the bank and we could probably go as high as around £60m, maybe even £70m, for Griezmann, but it’s difficult to see Arsenal paying almost £90m for one player.

We all know United can pay that kind of money as they’ve just spend around £90m on Pogba so unfortunately I think they’d be in the driving seat to sign him if he does decide to leave Atletico next year.