Barcelona Transfer News: Latest on Antoine Griezmann, Neymar, Nolito Rumours

Barcelona goalkeeper Claudio Bravo has described his former team-mate, Antoine Griezmann, as "world-class" and believes the Atletico Madrid playmaker has what it takes to succeed with the Blaugrana.  

Bravo and Griezmann played together at Real Sociedad before their respective departures in 2014, and the Frenchman has gone from strength to strength at Atleti but is now being linked with a possible move elsewhere, per Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Guillem Balague.

Clearly, Bravo would be happy to see Griezmann move to the Camp Nou and indicated that he is good enough to excel at Barca, per Espacio Reservado (via Goal.com's Tom Beck): 

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I was pleasantly surprised by him. I had him at home, I advised him, and I was tugging at his ears when I saw he was leaving. He has done well, he has matured quickly and he has understood the way to work and look after himself. He was very restless, but is now a world-class player. He has the ability to play at Barca.

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However, it seems unlikely that Griezmann would join the Catalan club, not least because Atleti would be loath to sell their best player to a direct La Liga rival.

Also, no matter how good the 24-year-old has been recently—he has netted 12 goals in 21 La Liga games this season, per WhoScored.com—he would consistently be in the shadows of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez at Barca.

A much more likely scenario would be for Griezmann to move to a European club at which he would remain one of the star names—or stay put at Atleti.

The Madrid outfit are, of course, still very much in the hunt for La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League glory this season and are sitting pretty in the top 10 of Bleacher Report's European club power rankings:

Meanwhile, Andoni Zubizarreta, a former player and sporting director at the Camp Nou, has insisted that Neymar—who was brought to the Camp Nou during his stewardship—is happy at Barca.

There has been some speculation surrounding the Brazil captain's future as he thrashes out a new deal with Barcelona, but Zubizarreta was adamant the 23-year-old is perfectly content, per Cadena Cope (via Dom Farrell of Goal.com): "Neymar is happy at the club. Very, very, very happy at the club."

And so he should be. Neymar has, in the last year, won La Liga, the Champions League, the Cop del Rey and the Club World Cup, while his partnership with Messi and Suarez has gone from extraordinary to unprecedented, per Barca's website.

Barcelona remain arguably the best club side in the world, and on a personal level, Neymar is enjoying the best season of his career, having notched 16 goals and nine assists in 17 league games, per WhoScored.

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With Neymar satisfied, Barca have been on the lookout for a player who can provide cover in attack for the current forward trio, but their long-term pursuit of Celta Vigo's Nolito looks to have hit a wall.

Per Lluis Mascaro of Sport, Barca made a final offer to Celta to sign the 29-year-old forward on loan for the rest of the season with an option to buy at the end of the campaign, but the bid was rejected.

The report indicates that Nolito was manager Luis Enrique's top target but, having failed to snap him up, Barca will now make no new additions in January.

However, the recent good form of Munir El Haddadi—he has netted four times in the last three matches—softens the blow somewhat of Barca missing out on Nolito, per Spanish football writer Dermot Corrigan:

Indeed, it seems as though the Catalan giants weren't trying that hard to sign their former player as the offer they put to Celta was hardly the most attractive.