Antoine Griezmann is one player that could find himself on the wrong end of Barcelona’s current cash crisis.
Reports in Spain claim the La Liga side cannot register Lionel Messi, who is out of contract, and their four summer signings including Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay as the club have exceeded their staff cost limit.
That means they are in desperate need to reduce their wage bill which has resulted in the likes of Griezmann being linked with a move away from the club.
Barca’s mounting debt means president Joan Laporta has been working with a tight budget this summer which is why their transfers have all been on a free.
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Aguero and Eric Garcia have both joined the club after their contracts expired at Manchester City, while Depay and Emerson have also arrived for nothing.
Re-signing Messi is a priority, but his high salary demands will eat into their wage bill.
Barca have already started trimming their squad with Francisco Trincao joining Wolves on loan for the season, with an option to buy, and Junior Firpo also departing for Leeds in a deal worth around £13million, saving the club around £8m per season.
Konrad De La Fuente and Jean Claire-Todibo have also both been sold, with the duo heading to Marseille and Nice respectively, saving Barcelona roughly £9m in wages.
But the club still needs to get their high earners off the wage bill as Samuel Umtiti, Philippe Coutinho and Miralem Pjanic are all up for sale.
And Griezmann is the latest name who has been offered to clubs which has alerted the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City who are looking for a striker this summer.
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But if he does make the move to the Premier League, it’s unlikely to be Arsenal.
The Gunners tried to sign Griezmann back in 2013 when he was at Real Sociedad, but the deal collapsed late on, with the North London club pulling the plug on the deal.
The forward opened up about the failed move in his autobiography in 2017 as he revealed that he was still annoyed that Arsenal stalled on a deal, before he would later knock them back when they came back in for him.
He said: “I waited, I waited, and I kept waiting.
“When there was no news, Eric [Olhats] (Griezmann’s former agent) called Gilles Grimandi, who said that the manager [Arsene Wenger] was still interested in me [and] to keep waiting.
“Finally a few hours before the market closed, he let us know Arsenal would not make a move. I don’t like to be told something and for it not to happen.
“So when Eric told me later that the London club were interested again I told him ‘Forget it, after the blow they gave us’.”
