Griezmann was definitely a statement signing just to flex Barto's muscles, signing one of the best players in the league from a direct rival.
Problem with all three flops was that none of them was a plug and play into our system. There was hope of Dembele replacing Neymar at LW and Coutinho replacing Iniesta at CM but they never thrived there at their respective clubs, and of course didn't do it here either.
Griezmann at the time of signing had no clear position either. People were hoping he would go back to his Sociedad days and score goals from LW and CF. It was an incredibly dumb signing for that amount of money with Messi at the club. He was not the missing piece to our struggles.