Most expensive flop in history? It’s good that Antoine Griezmann didn’t come

The financial component of the mega transfer to FC Barcelona is certainly the main reason why this transfer not only failed, but why FC Bayern did everything right with its withdrawal. The Bavarians have already experienced how much the salary structure can change as a result of well-known and expensive newcomers with the commitments of Lucas Hernandez and Leroy Sane.

But even if the Griezmann transfer had been financially solvable, it is questionable whether he would have been able to keep his promise in sport. Since the Frenchman switched to Barca, things have gone downhill in sport. A very important reason for this was that there was no optimal role for the Catalans – or rather it was occupied by Lionel Messi.

Griezmann is not a classic winger, but strong between the lines and in the centre, from where he can initiate attacks again and again or look for depth himself. Another big misunderstanding is that the 31-year-old is not a classic dribbler. On average, he dribbled 1.9 times per 90 minutes during his career, winning 0.9 of those times.

He had his best value in this statistic in 2014/15 in the Champions League, when he won 2 out of 3.6 dribbles per 90 minutes. For comparison: predecessor Neymar has a career average of 8.4 dribbles per 90 minutes (4.7 successful). However, Barcelona have not adjusted their game system accordingly. The Catalans expected Griezmann to be able to cope with the much more static situations.

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