Giroud: the asking price was quoted as £50m. So what did we pay? (And Mr Wenger’s comments) « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. 800,000 visits last month

By Tony Attwood

It is extraordinary that with a set of forward line options that includes

• Van Persie
• Giroud
• Gervinho
• Podolski
• Oxlade Chamberlain
• Walcott
• Ryo

and with two players (Chamakh and Park) expected to leave or go on loan the media is still talking about who Arsenal will buy in the forward line.

Maybe it is to cover up the “facts” that they have given us about Giroud in the past.  For example…

In November last year Montpellier owner Louis Nicollin said Olivier Giroud might leave his club, but not for Newcastle who were currently touted as possible buyers because they were “too small” a club.   He said that however that a move for Olivier Giroud to Arsenal would be possible, but the price would have to be right.

By that time Montpellier were second in the league.  Giroud had scored 13 times at that point in the season.  He was 25 years old, a clear talent, and Newcastle had the reputation of buying from France.

Newcastle responded by saying they were not in the market for a striker in the January transfer window – not least I suspect as a way of managing supporter expectations.  They were doing well in the league, but talk in the area about buying lots of players to secure a top four spot were way out.   But that didn’t stop the Montpellier boss putting the boot in.

As we know, the press in Britain work on the basis that no one in the kingdom can speak a second language, and so they are happy to take interviews in European languages and twist them around to create a different impression.   Thus an interview Nicollin did with RTL was presented as meaning that Giroud would not be going to Arsenal because the asking price for the player was far too much for Arsenal to pay.

This was ammunition for the AAA who took the wholly false meaning from the translation of that interview to suggest that Arsenal had once again blown the possibility of the signing because of the traditional stubbornness of Arsene Wenger (which of course does not exist, but the AAA invented it and so they have to find examples of it), because the board were not willing to pay proper transfer fees, and, oh some other stuff that was too silly to note down at the time.

What the RTL article actually said was this.  Nicollin was asked if a bid of 10 million euros (which was the price that supposedly Newcastle were offering) would secure the player.   He replied:

“And at 10million euros? No. Given that he still has more than two years of contract, it will cost more.   He has a contract until 2014, [so] 50 or 60million euros at least.”

So as Giroud does his medical and prepares to come to Arsenal, the question is: did we really pay 50 or 60 million euros for the player who scored 21 goals last season and was the top scorer.

In 2011–12, Montpellier won its first Ligue 1 title.   They beat Paris Saint-Germain by three points  – which is no mean feat given that PSG is the Man City of France.   Despite scoring the same number of goals as Paris Saint-Germain attacker Nenê, Giroud has “top scorer” award from La Ligue de Football Professionnel due to getting more goals in open play.

But there is no chance that 50 to 60 million was ever the price – in the end there is always realism in football transfers.  And it is not at all certain the Giroud will be a regular starter, if, as seems likely, Van Persie stays.

What is likely to happen, I believe, and as I have suggested before, is that we will have the extra players to cover for the injuries that we now seem to get year in year out.  So when other clubs use the “targeted injury” technique to remove virtually every player that we have in a particular position – as with full backs last season we will have every chance of having quality players still available.

If there are no injuries then we can engage in rotation – selecting players according to their form, resting players who have just come back from internationals, and changing the team around for the weeks in which the Champions League and Premier League games alternate.

As far as I remember the transfer window isn’t open yet, and when it does I can’t actually believe we will bring in any more forward line players.  And I am doubtful about midfield.  But maybe yet one more player in defence.  Perhaps.

Just one final point.  In this story there is no Gilles Grimandi – but he is normally involved in any transfer from France.  That’s not to say he wasn’t there – but for the moment I suspect the Grimandi story resides elsewhere in France.  I’ll come back to that in the next piece.

But meanwhile if you want to see Mr Wenger talking about Giroud, he’s here

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