Griezmann goes on strike: he didn't join up with Atlético Madrid

Atlético Madrid might act as if they feel offended but, if Antoine Griezmann hadn't announced he was leaving a while ago, the club wouldn't have been able to sign Joao Felix this summer.

Griezmann's lawyer informed Atletico that his client wouldn't attend the first day of preseason training.

On his holidays 

According to the information handed to Atletico, if Griezmann had attended the bus ride alongside his soon to be former teammates, he might have suffered "emotional stress". There's also the matter of the AFE regulations which state: "Footballers have the right to 30 holiday days over the course of a year unless they've spent less than a year at their club. 21 of those must be taken consecutively and the rest when both sides agree. In this case, he'll enjoy 30 consecutive days on holiday."

Griezmann has yet to reach 30 days off as his final professional match took place on the 11th June when France faced Andorra. This means Griezmann technically has until the 11th of July to return to Atletico.

Could he be fined?

There was a lot of speculation on Sunday about whether Atletico would fine Griezmann or not. The truth is until someone pays the €120m to buy out his contract, Griezmann must obey Atletico's instructions. However they made a mistake by already using the money from a potential transfer to sign Joao Felix and have given him Griezmann's number '7' shirt.

The plan now is for both sides to reach an amicable solution. Griezmann told Atletico he would be leaving as early as possible and, with that information, the club went on to sign Joao Felix for essentially the same amount. It would have been much worse had the French forward kept his mouth shut and only let Atletico know of his intentions on the 1st of July.

So whilst Atletico are playing the 'hard done by' card, it makes sense that everyone must work together in order to wrap up this transfer as soon as possible. They are within their right to ask for the buying team to pay Griezmann's full clause but demanding he return to training early, when there's no legal right for him to do that, doesn't help matters.

To avoid any future conflict the idea is to find a solution between now and next Thursday. FC Barcelona will need to pay the €120m to sign Griezmann. The only doubt is whether it'll be in one lump sum or in instalments.