While it hasn’t been an ideal debut season at Barcelona for Antoine Griezmann, speculation has linked him with an exit just a year on from joining the club.
The 29-year-old has bagged 14 goals and four assists in 37 appearances for the Catalan giants, which is arguably a respectable return when considering he’s adapting to a new club, culture, system and way of playing.
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Nevertheless, such are the high expectations at the Nou Camp, much more was perhaps expected of him at this stage in terms of having a bigger influence especially with Luis Suarez and Ousmane Dembele out injured.
Then of course given his €120m price-tag, as per BBC Sport, the club will undoubtedly hope to see him deliver much more when the season resumes and help them secure major trophies with the La Liga title and Champions League still up for grabs.
However, transfer speculation has raised question marks over his future, with Calciomercato noting that both Inter and Paris Saint-Germain have been paired with an interest in the World Cup-winning French international.
Despite that though, it’s added in the report that Griezmann has no intention of leaving Barcelona, and so that will potentially end talk of an exit if the club are happy to keep him on.
Giving him a second season to fully settle and showcase his worth would arguably be the more sensible plan rather than axing him after one disappointing campaign, but as Mundo Deportivo note, Barcelona continue to be linked with a swoop for Inter forward Lautaro Martinez and so it remains to be seen how that impacts Griezmann’s future going forward if he’s pushed down the pecking order as a result of a possible arrival.
The Daily Mail even report that Inter could ask for the Frenchman in exchange.
What is seemingly clear at this stage though is that the player himself doesn’t want to leave. With the opportunity to win major trophies and to play alongside some of the top players in the world including Lionel Messi, it’s easy to see why that could be accurate.