Can I Find Griezman Domination Again
Griezmann's Atletico Madrid return happened right when Barcelona finally had room to make him their star
Why are Barcelona letting Griezmann render to Atletico Madrid? (0:59)
Julien Laurens questions why Barcelona look set to ameliorate a direct rival with cypher in render for Antoine Griezmann. (0:59)
The time was 23:59:40. There were xx seconds of the transfer window to go when Atletico Madrid completed the deal that brought Antoine Griezmann "dwelling" from Barcelona, or so it goes. Information technology was late, anyway. Likewise belatedly, some said. Just in fourth dimension, though LaLiga said. At 1 a.m., they released a statement insisting the deal had been registered in their system -- and, yep, information technology actually is called LaLiga Director -- before the deadline. In that location had been no extension, no holding back time. At 1:22 a.m., one-half an 60 minutes after confirming that Saul Niguez was going to Chelsea, Atletico finally appear the signing. Welcome dorsum, Antoine.
It is what he wanted. Well, sort of.
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This wasn't what Griezmann had planned, and not the manner he'd imagined information technology when he signed two years before, but it was the best mode out. Information technology shouldn't take come up to this, even though it was always possible that it would, right from the very start. And having come to this, having reached this bespeak, he needed a manner out. They all did. This was what Barcelona wanted, too; more than than what they wanted, it was what they needed. And once the club had decided that it was better to let go, he was sure -- in so much as he was sure of annihilation -- that he wanted to go back to Atletico, to a place where he would feel wanted, one where the team might fifty-fifty be better than the one he is leaving.
Quite how wanted at this point remains to be seen. Some fans will have doubts, of course, burned past the way he left in the first identify. And however, wounds heal with goals and the generosity he's never lacked, and Atletico know amend than anyone how adept he can be. It's not like things went badly the last fourth dimension they took a striker from Barcelona for free, either. The last two times, in fact.
— Atlético de Madrid (@atletienglish) September 8, 2021
And one affair's for sure: Diego Simeone knows. Supposedly unsentimental, Atletico's manager does have a cornball streak that frequently sees him go back to those he knows, and he wanted Griezmann back, convincing him to return to a family where he had felt so much role of information technology. At that place was comfort at that place, waiting.
At the Camp Nou, somehow, he never actually did. Fifty-fifty at his presentation, he was saying: "If I have to say sorry, I volition do information technology on the pitch." After his departure, he published a note to fans saying thanks for the support he hadn't ever felt; saying he was "proud" to have been ane of them, which somehow he never really was either; and admitting that he was leaving "lamentable" at not having been able to bask them more than "in the stands," a remark that was probably about more than merely the wide, empty spaces the pandemic brought.
Griezmann never entirely found his place at Barcelona, certainly non like he'd imagined or like he had at Atletico. Now he leaves just as he might take done when, at concluding, the conditions could have suited him. Except, of course, that the economic conditions had become dramatic, eclipsing all else, and a lot has been lost along the fashion.
Griezmann arrived at Barcelona for €120 meg plus add-ons. He departs for free, on a two-year loan. A clause in the agreement ways that if he plays more than 50% of the games in his second flavor, Atletico will exist obliged to pay €40m to finance a permanent move, although those kinds of not-negotiable deals have a habit of becoming negotiable after all.
That's how desperate it has become for Barcelona, even with Lionel Messi leaving. In that location is no fee for at least two years, but Barcelona still had €72m in amortisation remaining on Griezmann'south signing and letting him go will salve them a total figure, once bonuses are factored in, not that far off €20m a year. In all, it may be worth €100m to them.
They may as well believe that they've finally cut their losses in purely footballing terms, that it was time to let go. His deviation certainly has been largely unlamented, except as an expression of the gravity of the crunch at the Camp Nou. The Barcelona president Joan Laporta said this calendar week that Griezmann was "non the player we needed," just at the indicate at which he might have been. Laporta likewise said "he could have given more." That was opportunistic -- self-justifying, too -- but not entirely unjust.
Griezmann leaves having scored 35 goals and provided 19 assists in 102 games. There accept been of import goals too: he opened the scoring 19 times, and nine times his goals put Barcelona in the lead. He's not failed, exactly. But he has not been a success either -- not really. At least not an unqualified ane. Information technology's not that bad, simply it'due south not that good. Not as good as it should have been.
This is a thespian, it is sometimes forgotten, that came equally one of the very best in the world, a human who that summer became a world champion. Who genuinely was a candidate for Ballon d'Or. During his deliberations, when he was trying to make up one's mind whether to join Barcelona, his idea process broadcast on a documentary called "The Decision," an obsession was revealed: to win the Champions League. He had lost a last and, he clearly feared, a one-off opportunity with Atletico; at Barcelona, he would become some other chance.
He didn't.
In "The Determination," Griezmann'southward sister tells him that any successes he has at Atletico would be his; any he has at Barcelona would exist Messi'due south. Just he doesn't fifty-fifty take much success to share. In the two years he was there, European emptying has come with an 8-2 defeat against Bayern and a 5-1 aggregate loss against PSG. He has won just i bays: the Copa del Rey. The team he left backside are league champions and that Messi question has always been there, that sense of identify, of fit.
When Griezmann scored his starting time Barcelona goal, he threw confetti in the air, imitating LeBron James. He said of his goal, a lovely curler into the net, that "I had seen Messi practise information technology." Information technology has always felt similar at some level, there was something in that phrase. That day, Messi was watching from the stands, only most other days Griezmann would have to discover accommodation alongside him. He had joined maybe the only social club in the earth where the human playing in his position -- off the right, off the front -- was ameliorate than him, maybe the best thespian at that place has ever been.
Griezmann had as well joined the guild a year late, having originally turned them down -- and in turning them down in that documentary. He had joined them for a huge fee, and he'd done so instead of Neymar, the man Messi kept saying he wanted. "If we hadn't signed Griezmann, we would have signed Neymar," Eric Abidal would say. Griezmann came apologetically, aware that he had to make it upward to them, but he didn't entirely succeed in doing so. He scored xv and 20 goals -- lower than in any of his seasons at Atletico, and while playing in a far more offensive team.
Some are gorgeous, genuinely off the scale brilliant, but few stand-out as huge moments, although it would be unfair to overlook his opener in the cup final.
More than that, beyond the goals, the stats, and the metrics by which to measure him there's something less tangible, the inescapable feeling that he didn't really fit. That Griezmann was good, yeah, and there could exist no faulting his attitude, but he was not that good. He was never truly able to find himself, correct to the cease, and didn't get all that much help in doing and so. And he knew it -- all too well.
Griezmann not unjustly told Jorge Valdano in ane interview: "I take had three managers in a year-and-a-half here." When he was asked if he might not play better on the correct in 1 press briefing, he replied: "that's a good question." At one international get-together, he noted: "Deschamps knows where to play me." The "unlike Barcelona" part didn't need saying.
Well-liked at Barcelona, Griezmann seemed to lack the personality to impose himself. Ane managing director effectively told him he had to get on with it; just do it. No more than excuses. Another tried to bring him more into the play, to get him to pace up. "He's not a 'scissure' [great]," El Pais recently quoted a director as maxim privately, which might have been fine, but he was supposed to be.
And now, with Messi going, perhaps he could become one, responsibility his; the reward, too.
Initially, Barcelona had seen his departure as a mode of holding onto Messi. Both together was economically unsustainable. Same dared to dream of a fee in three figures, though in that location were no offers at that stage of the summer. They had said every bit early on as mid-July that they were open to him leaving. A swap deal with Saul was looked into, but fell down. They had tried to push button him out, a situation he had come to have. And then Messi left, leaving him backside.
Information technology's Antoine's fourth dimension, some suggested within the club. "At present, Antoine volition surely be more than of import," said director Ronald Koeman. "It'southward possible that he occupies Leo'south position. This will give more than liberty to the team, and to himself. Information technology could exist an advantage for him."
At present, he's gone. If it is an opportunity lost, that'southward because it is likewise an opportunity that may take already passed. And, well, as the old line has it: information technology's the economy, stupid. Messi'due south departure alone was not plenty, merely nor was it everything. While Memphis Depay seemed not to care what or who had gone before, adamant to accept control, to step heart-stage and fill up that void, Griezmann hadn't even so managed a shot on target. Summer thoughts had turned elsewhere, something had already been broken, didn't feel quite correct -- if information technology always had. And then dwelling house called. Tardily, only it did.
Source: https://www.espn.com/soccer/atletico-madrid-espatletico_madrid/story/4470705/griezmanns-atletico-madrid-return-happened-right-when-barcelona-finally-had-room-to-make-him-their-star
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