Arsenal continued their summer spending spree earlier this week by snapping up the services of Olivier Giroud from Ligue 1 winners Montpellier on a long-term contract. The 25 year old arrives in a deal rumoured to be in the region of £13m and, following on from the acquisition of Lukas Podolski, represents a significant restructuring of the Gunners’ attack ahead of the 2012/13 campaign:
With uncertainty still surrounding the future of club skipper Robin Van Persie, Arsene Wenger is clearly intent in avoiding a repeat of last summer, where the Gunners left their transfer dealings to the very last minute to pick up Mikel Arteta and Per Mertesacker. The Arsenal boss is more than happy with his new forward – speaking to the club’s official website, he revealed:
We are delighted to have secured the signing of Olivier Giroud. He has a very good physical presence and is exceptional in the air, with a great work ethic. We are excited about Olivier joining us and he will add an additional dimension to our attacking options next season.
The Statistics
Giroud is something of a latecomer to top-flight football. Signing his first professional contract with Grenoble at the age of 19, he initially spent time with the club’s reserve team in the fifth level of French football before being handed his Ligue 2 debut in March 2006. He spent three years at the club, making just 23 appearances and notching a couple of goals, though was more successful during a loan period with third division Istes, scoring 14 times in 33 appearances in the 2007-08 campaign.
Giroud then agreed a three-year deal with Ligue 2 club Tours and began to rack up the goals with regularity. Over the course of a couple of seasons, he featured 60 times – Giroud returned 31 goals and provided nine assists and was named Ligue 2 Player of the Year in his second campaign.
His career at the top level in French football began in July 2010; Giroud had initially signed for Montpellier in January that year but was loaned back to Tours until the end of the campaign. The step up in class was seamless and, if anything, seemed to bring the best out of the powerful forward. Installed as a first-team fixture, Giroud featured 37 times in his first campaign, picking up 12 goals and a pair of assists, but it was last season that he fully flourished into a lethal performer.
With 21 goals and nine assists over 36 appearances, Giroud fired Montpellier to the first Ligue 1 title in their history; his displays also earned a call-up to the national side and saw him finish the season as the league’s joint-top scorer. A queue of suitors resultantly gathered but while the player admitted Chelsea were amongst those clubs keen on his services, Wenger’s French connection helped seal the deal.
The Prospects
To a certain extent, the Fantasy potential of both Giroud and Podolski are dependent on Van Persie’s future. While Andrei Arshavin, Nicklas Bendtner and Marouane Chamakh are all expected to exit the Emirates this summer, none of the trio were first-team fixtures in the previous campaign and Wenger’s forward line now offers Fantasy managers a conundrum.
Standing 6 foot 3, Giroud is more of a target man; aerial prowess is a key asset to his game and he is far less versatile than either Van Persie or Podolski. He flourished as the lone striker in Montpellier’s 4-2-3-1 system last season and if Wenger keeps the same formation as last time round, it’s a possibility that Podolski could take the left flank, with Van Persie in “the hole” and Theo Walcott wide right. There are plenty permutations – Gervinho can play on both flanks and offers further cover, for example, but shifting Giroud away from a central position would diminish his effectiveness considerably; it may well be that if Van Persie stays, Wenger could drop the Dutchman deeper, though a 4-4-2 is also viable.
The potential downside is that Arsenal’s recent up front acquisitions have all struggled to establish themselves as first-team picks. Gervinho, Chamakh and Chu-Young Park have failed to make any substantial impact but Giroud is more than confident he can fulfil his new manager’s expectations:
I think I have the weapons to do well here. I will need some time to adapt of course, but I’m not worried about that. I think I will adapt well. I’m a player who likes to play, who likes to participate in the game. That’s why I think the way Arsenal play will suit me. I like scoring goals and Arsenal create a lot of chances, so if I do well, then we will do well. Of course, there are big strikers here, it is a big club and there will be a lot of competition for places. But it’s up to me to win my place.
Likely to come in around the 9.0 mark in the 2012/12 Fantasy Premier League (FPL) campaign, Giroud is an intriguing proposition. Van Persie will surely be set for a price hike after his exploits last time round and his cost is likely to be bumped up to 13.0 or even 14.0. Grabbing an alternative route into an attack that returned 74 goals in the previous campaign is a tactic that many Fantasy managers will consider and, if Giroud can nail down a regular role in Wenger’s new-look attack, the comparatively modest outlay would save plenty budget and allow us to splash the cash elsewhere in our 15-man squads.
