Barcelona continue to be heavily linked with Atletico Madrid forward Antoine Griezmann this summer, and they could reportedly consider a major shake-up up front.
The Catalan giants seemingly don’t need to do too much this summer having just done the domestic double with the La Liga title and Copa del Rey safely secured.
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They’ve scored 94 goals in 36 league games, the biggest tally in the top flight, but according to Radio Cataluna, as per The Sun, they could be set to sacrifice Luis Suarez in order to hand Griezmann a prominent role.
Suarez has been a key figure for Barcelona since arriving at the Nou Camp in 2014, scoring 151 goals in 196 appearances en route to winning three La Liga titles, four Copa del Rey trophies and the Champions League amongst others.
He’s bagged 30 goals and 16 assists in 49 appearances this season alone to suggest that there is no real signs of decline on a consistent basis, albeit he has disappointed in certain games and did endure a slow start to the campaign.
The Uruguayan international will however turn 32 next year, and so with that in mind, perhaps it makes sense that he’s the one who could be offloaded in order to make space in the squad for Griezmann to feature alongside the likes of Philippe Coutinho and Ousmane Dembele as part of the long-term vision.
It will be quite the task for Ernesto Valverde to either find space in his starting line-up for all four including Lionel Messi next season if Griezmann does arrive, or he’ll have to successfully manage to rotate and keep them all happy.
As noted by COPE, it’s claimed that Barcelona will pay the €100m release clause in Griezmann’s contract this summer, but time will tell if they are forced into making a big decision to offload a player like Suarez who has been so crucial to their recent success.