Barcelona in hot pursuit of Griezmann
Manchester City eye Sanchez as transfer window approaches
Barcelona are making moves to bring Atletico Madrid star Antoine Griezmann to the Catalan capital while Manchester City are eyeing Alexis Sanchez as clubs around Europe prepare for the January transfer window.
The winter window opens at one minute past midnight on January 1, but Barca are looking for a belated Christmas present in the France international.
Both players will likely move in the summer but deals could be struck in January, with Sanchez holding out for a reported 400,000-pound-perweek ($535,000) deal from the runaway Premier League leaders when his contract runs out at the end of the season.
Mundo Deportivo claimed Barca president Josep Maria Bartomeu has had dinner with Griezmann’s parents and sister, who manages the player’s affairs, and the club are looking to tie him down to a deal that would see him move in the summer.
Not even Atletico’s complaint to FIFA about Barca’s public pursual of their star is likely to stop the move from happening, with Barca director Guillermo Amor as good as admitting the meeting took place.
In August, Griezmann’s former agent Eric Ohalts revealed that the France forward would have moved to Manchester United in the summer had FIFA not upheld a transfer ban that stopped the Madrid club from buying any reinforcements, and now Barca are ready to swoop.
Barca still have full coffers after receiving 222 million euros ($263 million) from the world record-busting sale of Neymar to Paris Saint-Germain and Griezmann’s 100 million euros buyout clause means the club only need to agree personal terms, avoiding the problems they encountered when they failed to sign Philippe Coutinho from Liverpool in August.
Barcelona are however still keeping tabs on Coutinho and could make a lower bid than the 100 million euros they were prepared to pay in the summer.
After the Neymar signing, Paris Saint-Germain have got to sell players to comply with Financial Fair Play rules.
Inter Milan are among those looking at PSG midfielder Javier Pastore, who admitted last month he was “disappointed” at his lack of first-team action.
PSG coach Unai Em- ery admitted that Brazilian midfielder Lucas Moura and French international striker Hatem Ben Arfa are interested in leaving in January, but said nothing about Pastore and Angel Di Maria, who has expressed his annoyance at being forced out of the first team by new arrivals Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Liverpool and Arsenal are keen on PSG’s Julian Draxler, but the German international has revealed that he has no plans to leave Paris after finding a new role in Emery’s team.