Arsenal Should Have Signed Atletico Star Griezmann, Former Player Reveals

Former Arsenal player Paul Merson has stated that the North London side should have gone the extra mile to sign Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann adding that everyone has a price and the French international is not an exception despite his club’s public pronouncement that he is not for sale.

Speaking to news outlet Sunday World on Arsenal’s ambition as a club, Paul Merson said: “They could have bought Antoine Griezmann last summer. After all, everyone has a price.”

“Okay, Atletico Madrid might say publicly that he is not for sale but Ar­senal have more than £100m in reserves in the bank, so go and put an offer in that will make them sell him.

“If they started signing top players, proper world-class stars, people would take Arsenal seriously again but that respect is not there at the moment.

“They play nice pretty football and are great to watch, but they are not a threat to the top teams in England, so it’s easy to for every football fan to turn around and say; ‘Arsenal play some great stuff, they are lovely to watch’.

“It’s not good enough. There are 60,000 people paying big money to watch that team play at Emirates Stadium every other week and most of them are paying around £70 to be there.

“Taking everything into account, they should be bringing in better quality players than they are but it’s just not happening.” he concluded.

23-year old Antoine Griezmann was the star of the 2016 European champions in France though his national team lost the title to eventual winners Portugal in the final.