Antoine Griezmann's 60th minute substitutions could be about to come to an end, with reports claiming Atletico Madrid and Barcelona are set to come to an agreement.
In a quite incredible trend this season, Griezmann has been brought on by Diego Simeone in more or less the same minute and has never played more than 30 minutes in a game.
He's still been making an impact from the bench, scoring three times - including a dramatic 101st minute winner against Porto in the Champions League.
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There has been talk that Barcelona were preparing a lawsuit against Atletico in relation to the two-year loan deal becoming a permanent transfer.
But Griezmann again only managed 27 minutes of action in the 4-1 win over Celta Vigo at the weekend.
The consensus was that the loan deal would become a €40 million permanent transfer but only if Griezmann plays 45 minutes in half of Atleti's games he is available for across the two campaigns.
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Barca argued that they were already entitled to the fee, claiming that the clause was activated at the end of 2021/22 because he played 45 minutes or more in 80% of matches.
However, L'Equipe say both Atleti and Barca are close to resolving the issue by lowering the fee to €25 million.
It seems as though Los Rojiblancos are happy to pay that reduced sum - and in turn we will likely see Griezmann play more than half an hour from the bench.
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The last time he played a full 90 minutes for his club in a competitive game was back in April against Athletic Bilbao.
Barcelona paid a whopping £107 million fee to land Griezmann in 2019 but he didn't fit in at the Nou Camp and headed back to the Wanda Metropolitano, where he's scored 144 goals over the two stints.
Topics: Antoine Griezmann, Atletico Madrid, La Liga, Barcelona
Josh Lawless