Griezmann and the potential domino effect on Neymar
Antoine Griezmann has been with Atlético Madrid for five years and for many, was leaving from the first of these five with the implication being that he always saw himself bigger than the club. He finally brings the curtain down on his spell with Atleti leaving 96 million euro behind with 24 million euro heading Real Sociedad's way. The strikers desire was to win the Champions League this season at the Metropolitano after the club upped his salary to 23 million euro per season following his flirtation with Barça last summer. The deal involved his buy-out clause being reduced form the current 200 million euro to 120 million as of July 1st (2019). So, a fine player leaves the Madrid based club, a player who wants to be in the bright lights of a big name glamour institution.
Restructure
Aleti's strike-force is now reduced to the improving Morata, the erratic Diego Costa and Lemar, a player who has yet to fulfil the hope deposited in the striker. Atleti are now busy scouring the market for another forward, but one who will explode at the club rather than a tried and tested option. Renewing Jan Oblak was an astute bit of business with many thinking that the Slovenian stopper would have been a more dramatic loss for the club (in a sporting context rather than commercial) compared to that of Griezmann. Also heading for the exit door at the club are veterans Godín and Juanfran but the departure of Lucas to Bayern Munich providing more of a body-blow, with so much hope deposited in the young player with a serious amount of restructuring work ahead fr the club's sporting directors over the summer.
Crossroads
Griezmann stated that he was toying with two options, which are FC Barcelona and now PSG. Join Barça and link up with Messi or move to PSG to forge a French allegiance with Mbappé and attempt to stem the stigma that the Ligue 1 outfit only brings in expensive foreign talent. We all felt last summer that the striker was destined for the Catalan capital and a move to the French side could see Real Madrid activate their plan to secure Neymar, a player long desired by club president Florentino Perez. Griezmann's final decision will have an inevitable domino effect on the two giants of the Spanish game as Atleti lick their wounds and begin to restructure with the money left behind from his departure.