Former Arsenal ace Paul Merson has called on his former club to show their ambition by beating Manchester United to the signing of Antoine Griezmann.
As noted by talkSPORT, the 25-year-old has been linked with an £85.5m move to Old Trafford in the summer, with United having to meet the release clause in his Atletico Madrid contract.
While that is a huge amount of money, they have shown that they are capable of splashing out with the signing of Paul Pogba last summer, and it seems as though another marquee signing could be on the way.
However, despite on-going speculation about Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil potentially leaving Arsenal, Merson has called on the Gunners to not only keep their key duo but also to add Griezmann and more world-class players to the squad.
“When [the fans] you’re paying that kind of money you have to be watching world class footballers at the club. You can’t just have two – you should have five and six in my opinion,” he told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show on talkSPORT.
“With Griezmann, people go ‘they’ve [Arsenal] got that kind of player’. They haven’t. They’ve got two of them but you could do with another one.
“For me there isn’t a club in the world that wouldn’t want Griezmann.”
It remains to be seen if Merson gets his wish, but there will undoubtedly be plenty of pessimism amongst Arsenal fans who won’t expect the club to spend that amount of money on one player.
Given what Griezmann has achieved and shown in his time at Atleti, he is ultimately a difference-maker, and has the time and room for improvement to edge even closer to the level of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
If he is to leave the Spanish capital this summer, then the team fortunate enough to snap him up will be an immediate contender both domestically and in Europe if they are not already, and ultimately Merson is right, Arsenal should be in that pack pursuing his signature if they want to compete at the top level.