News this morning suggests that Chelsea will face a struggle in their efforts to sign Atletico Madrid sensation Antoine Griezmann with his club looking to strongly resist any attempts to sign the player despite setting a buy-out-clause.
Super-agent Jorge Mendes is understood to be about to enter into negotiations on the clubs behalf as Chelsea seek to bring the French international to the Bridge according to a report in the Mail.
Griezmann has had a strong season for Atletico, scoring 25 goals which is all the more remarkable given he only joined Atletico last season from Real Sociedad and is now being tipped to move again after his debut season. The 24-year-old French striker has a buy-out-clause of £43.5m and some in Spain believe this was set too low.
Atletico have been disappointing however on the whole this season and need to raise capital to reinvest in new players. Chelsea have already doing business over Diego Costa and with Mandzukic struggling to be an effective replacement, Atletico may feel they need to fight to keep their best players.
Chelsea may not be done with Griezmann and are also understood to be interested in Koke and Diego Godin. The report considers that Godin could go as at 29-years-old it will be difficult for them to turn down around £20million for the dependable if not sensational defender. Atletico do risk becoming something of a Chelsea feeder club but it will be a difficult juggling act to raise money to freshen-up the squad whilst retaining the players that will be most in demand.
Source: DSG
