Arsenal Complete Giroud Deal!

In typical Arsene Wenger era Arsenal fashion, we have been scouring France for quality players and today I am happy to say, Arsenal have completed the transfer of Olivier Giroud from Ligue 1 champions Montpellier for a transfer of £12 million. This should not be a shock to any Gunner fans, as this has been in the works for a few weeks now, with each week news breaking from both the media and the pertinent clubs stating progression on the transfer front was moving along well. As I expected, the announcement came after France crashed out of the Euros.  Word is Giroud has requested to wear the #12 shirt.

A little about our new signing:

• Played a a total of 40 matches last season and scored a very impressive 25 goals in the league and cup.
• Standing at nearly 6′3 hes a giant of striker and has won the highest percentage of aerial balls. In fact, he arieal win percentage is the highest in all 5 of the top leagues this season.  To add to his height, he has a bit of a brute force about him and is known to not be easily pushed around.
• Giroud has a, shall I say, unique trademark to celebrating his goals…don’t think it will go over well his new teammates.

We have been sorely missing a good aerial presence on this team with RVP getting the occassional header goal, and our adventurous defenders (Kocielny and Vermaelen, I’m looking at you) getting their noggins on the ball from time to time. We had high hopes of Chamakh being that guy, but he obviously has lost his touch, and with Bendtner on his way out (likely), Giroud comes in at exactly the right time. You may ask, what is the difference between Giroud and Chamakh? Well to start, Giroud is a much more robust player, he is a solid poacher in front of the goal, but also is more impactful to the game than the one-dimensional Chamakh who solely relies on perfect delivery. Giroud also knows what it takes to be a winner, something any team wants in a player. Arsenal needs players of quality no doubt, but they also need players of quality who have seen silver, who know how to deliver when it matters most, and from everything I have seen of Giroud during his run last season to help win the league with Montpellier, he scored some incredible timely, clutch goals.

With Giroud and Podolski signed up, our attacking front has become pretty ferocious. Now lets hope we grab that other Frenchman who can help in the DM and maybe even another defender (one can dream, right?).

I’m really excited to see what this guy has to offer and very, very curious to see how Wenger will work our new signings into rotation. We have to believe there is going to be a formation change in the works for Arsenal this year, no? 4-4-2 is the most likely of scenarious IMHO.

What say you, Gooners?

Perry S. was here.

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Category: Arsenal News