Nicklas Bendtner

According to Mundo Deportivo, Barcelona deny that they have reached an agreement with Atlético Madrid over the signing of Arsenal target Antoine Griezmann, who Nicklas Bendtner has urged the Gunners to sign. Well, it was said that Mikel Arteta wanted to sign the France international before the September 1st deadline, and is keeping an eye on the striker ahead of the January transfer window. However, Arsenal’s hopes of signing Griezmann looked over after Spanish news outlets claimed that Barcelona had agreed to sell their £107m man to Atlético Madrid for just £22m.

Diego Simeone is currently only using the Frenchman from the 60th minute onwards in order to avoid triggering a €40m (£35m) purchase clause to buy the forward on a permanent basis, as per the terms of the two-year loan agreement with Barcelona. Now, however, Barcelona deny that the clause has been lowered to £22m, which provides fresh hope to Arsenal as it means the situation is still very much open for the Gunners.

This will be a very complicated move for Arsenal, as there are a few legal issues between Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. Mundo Deportivo are claiming that Barcelona believe Atlético Madrid have already triggered the clause, and expect their La Liga rivals to stump up £35m for the 30-year-old.
Of course, if Barcelona find that they’re in the wrong, causing relations to break down with Atlético Madrid and Griezmann to return to the Camp Nou, it would put Arsenal in a good position with a fixed fee set at £35m. We aren’t saying that would be good value for money for a player going into his thirties, but if Barcelona and Atlético Madrid cannot come to a solution and the striker ends up back in Catalonia, Arsenal have a good chance of signing him.