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Atletico Madrid may sign Barcelona player in Antoine Griezmann deal - expert
ATLETICO MADRID may angle to get a Barcelona player in return for any deal that sees Antoine Griezmann head in the opposite direction, reckons European football expert Gabriele Marcotti.
Griezmann announced in May he would be leaving Atletico Madrid this summer.
The France international was widely expected to join Barcelona once his buyout clause reduced to €120million on July 1.
However, a deal is yet to be finalised for the 28-year-old attacker.
Atletico released a strongly worded statement on Friday, claiming Barca have disrespected them over their approach for Griezmann.
I think this is a way for them to get further leverage over Barcelona, maybe get something in exchange, maybe a young player
They claim there were discussions between Griezmann and Barca as early as March this year.
“Both Barcelona and the player have disrespected Atletico and all its fans,” the statement read.
"On 14 May, Antoine Griezmann informed the club of his decision to leave the club at the end of the season.
"In the days following that meeting, Atletico learned that Barcelona and the player had reached an agreement last March, specifically in the days after the second leg of our Champions League tie against Juventus, and had been negotiating the terms of the agreement since mid-February.
"[This is] something we consider violates protected periods of negotiation with players and alters the basic rules that govern the integrity of all sports competition, besides being a huge loss to our club and its millions of fans."
Marcotti believes Griezmann will still end up a Barcelona player and that Atletico are just trying to get “leverage” on the deal.
And he reckons that could potentially be a young Barca star heading to the Wanda Metropolitano as part of negotiations.
“I think it all gets done,” Marcotti said on ESPN FC.
“They’ve already spent the money on Joao Felix.
“Obviously they also have a situation where you’re not going to keep a superstar that wants to be elsewhere.
“But I think this is a way for them to get further leverage over Barcelona, maybe get something in exchange, maybe a young player, maybe over the terms of the payment.
“I think this is posturing but it’s clever.”