Olivier Giroud spent five seasons as the number one striker for the most part, but since the arrival of Alexandre Lacazette has found himself marginalised.
He has started games in the Europa League but has yet to start a Premier League game, and although he has five goals to his name, he’s being warned that he needs to play more if he wants to be keep his place in the France national team.
It’s a situation that has already been addressed by French manager Didier Deschamps, but the Arsenal man was given another nudge towards the January exit door by assistant manager Guy Stephan.
“It’s clear that, in terms of playing time, it’s insufficient and Didier has already spoken to him about it,” he told TF1.
“He has a very good goals-to-games ratio, but he now has to play. He has to find a solution in the coming weeks.”
Barring an injury, he’s unlikely to get that playing time at Arsenal, so the pressure is being put on him to seek a move – the ethics of that from a national coach are questionable to say the least.
Speaking last month, the 31 year expressed his desire to continue to add to what he’s done in red and white since joining from Montpellier in 2012.
“I am happy at Arsenal and I am fine with the decision to stay because I want to,” he said.
“I am thinking that the story between the club and myself was not over and not finished.
“We will see what happens but I am happy at Arsenal for the moment.”
Whether this pressure changes his mind about how he wants to play out the rest of the season remains to be seen, but with Theo Walcott an increasingly likely January departure it would be a surprise if Arsene Wenger sanctioned any kind of move.
tough situation for Oli!
I hope he makes the right choice for himself, whatever that means for Arsenal…
Strange – France would get a striker fully fit (no burn out) ready for the World Cup, his form is fine – threatening his place is idiotic in my opinion. I hope Giroud stays a Gooner, best target man in the league and to think united paid 90 million for Lukaku
If Martial keeps a good form, Giroud will have tough time getting into the World Cup team. Martial has the advantage of playing CF and winger. Don’t think stubborn Deschamps will select Benzema but he is getting unpopular in France for this. Benzema’s problem solved, Olivier will stay home.
Giroud is a certainty for the squad for WC barring any injury. Martial only just got back into the French squad after a year of not being picked. Even if he does play it will be from off the wing.
And I am 90% sure Benzema won’t be taken to the WC. He wasn’t selected for their home Euro’s and nothing has since changed to make them give him a place. Giroud has the ability to link up well with Lacazette, Griezmann or Mbappe so if they play a 2 up top, Oli should be the chosen target man.
85% people in france dont want benzema back or near the selection…even on the bench giroud is scoring more than him.his scoring ratio is superior to benzema for france…..
Giroud wont be france first striker i think ,lacazette last performance for france won him the place but deschamps love giroud as he bring something different to other striker
16 goals in 24 appearances seems a decent strike rate for France, no? I can understand why OG would want more matches, but inferring that his FNT form is “suffering” seem wide of the mark…
I’m sorry Guy but that’s a no from me.
Can’t we loan him for half a season, then?
He gets the playing time to get a WC spot. Then he comes back to Arsenal the next season.
I don’t understand the so many downvotes, it seems to be a reasonable solution for me – although quite unlikely. Still better than the two striker formation…
Really? What if Lacazette gets injured or has a run of bad form? What if some games need a target man? It’s a mental idea to loan him out, Arsenal should do what’s best for Arsenal, not France
442, Giroud Lacazette upfront.
Wait, what’s this about Walcott now?
He’s not your buddy, Guy
As much as I love him, no. He’s not leaving. There’s no way Deschamps is not taking him. He does incredibly well for the national team for someone who does not play enough now minutes. Talk to us when he comes back from the World Cup with the golden boot and we can sell him at a premium.
Guy Stephan can eat a dick.
Ollie has to look no further than Mathieu Debuchy as to what can happen to your career if you go chasing football to further ones international chances.
Besides his Mrs wont let him go anyway!
I like Laca but I very much doubt Oli would have scored less goals if he had been given the same playing time… If he does leave, best of luck to him. Top notch dude and a very underrated striker
fewer
Dude are you really trying to save the world from the evils of bad grammar on a football forum? Guess you’ll have to say goodbye to your day job then! That being said, yes, fewer, thanks for the heads up (I wrote the comment while ordering thay takeaway) 😉
It’s definitely not an easy one for him. On the one hand he must know his chances of playing regularly are slim but he loves the club. On the other this will be his last chance at a World Cup. It can’t be easy but then football is full of tough decisions. One day you’re king of the hill, the next day there isn’t even a hill to be king of because the entire terrain has been flattened as if you were playing Sim City and you couldn’t get water to certain sections of your housing areas no matter how… Read more »
Damn that was deep…u really are frustrated with sim city
Today is a good day.
Thanks, that made my day.
Welcome back home Pete
Oh hello, good to hear from you Rambling Pete. Glad that you are still amongst us……somewhere….
Christmas has come early. Good to have you back Pete.
WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?
Smeg me, I’ve missed reading Rambling Pete!
Pete, you are only a minor edit or two away from the Homeric simile.
I never understand this. Same thing with Southgate saying Jack needs more playing time to get a call up in the summer. I mean I get WHY national team managers do this, they want in form and match fit players. But at the same time it’s not like there’s replacements that are MUCH better. So you leave Giroud out for who? Who is a more experienced and reliable goal scorer for France that plays up top? Benzema is still banned from the Valbuena mess, so whoe else? Gignac? In my mind Giroud is a shoe in for the WC squad.… Read more »
“…pressure is being put on him to seek a move – the ethics of that from a national coach are questionable to say the least.” Are you being deliberately obtuse?!? You know full well International coaches say this every other year in the lead up to international tournaments. Not getting games for your club side lessens your chances of getting picked for your country, it’s pretty basic and simple logic isn’t it? In fact everyone argued on here that we’d get the best out of Ozil and Sanchez because they wouldn’t want to jeopardise going to the World Cup, so… Read more »
I know it’s Acute idea to hope that international managers could leave clubs alone and that their selection decisions are a sensible and rational process but time and time again we see the contrary.
What criteria do you think international managers should use when selecting players for international duty if not their club form?
It does work both ways though. Plenty of club coaches have put pressure on national players and teams to not select players at times.
Its forever going to be a problem, and its just how its going to be. No biggy really. A player has to do whats in the ebst interests of the player.
So are we selling olivier, theo and alexis in Jan? We’re gonna need lacazette to score a bucketload if that happens, cos Iwobi’s bot getting those goals.
Fortunately we got Eddie :s
Honest question – why can’t we play Giroud and Lacazette together full-time, esp if Sanchez is sold in January? They’ve played together for France, and while the squad might be a bit unbalanced, it seems better than letting Giroud start seeking greener pastures.
Theo is going nowhere if Ozil leaves. Not a direct replacement for Ozil but the German is being played out of position. Even in case Sanchez leaves, Theo remains.
Deschamps is being a buffoon.
He’ll have a relatively fresh striker to use at the tournament that scores no matter the frequency of his playing time.
The ‘Tin-Foil Hatter’ in me thinks there’s another motive for all this talk…
P.s. the earth is flat.
If a club manager used his influence to persuade one or more of his players, not to play for their national side I would imagine that FIFA or UEFA would sanction him and he’d probably be punished.
So how can a national team manager interfere with the affairs of a club and for it to be ok?
Maybe he wants to change and start Lacazette up front and is using Arsenal not playing him as an excuse. Pretty dirty if true but even if it isn’t that, on face value it’s still dirty.
I agree that the ethics of Deschamps and company here are iffy at best. As many of us often comment, it is the club teams that pay wages and then the national teams feel like they can do whatever they want with the players. While I understand the correlation between club playing time and overall fitness for the national team, it, to me, is outrageous that a national team manager can try and have this direct of an influence on a team, player, organization, league, etc. The whole system is flawed.
“… the ethics are … questionable …”
Questionable?! They’re downright damnable! Deschamps and Stephan can keep their fucking mouths shut. If we publicly told Ollie not to play for France because we write his paycheques, we’d quite rightly be censored. What a pair of buffoons!
There’s nothing questionable about it, the ethics have been discussed at length and the reason we have a January transfer window is so players can leave a club if they find themselves not playing.
The unethical position would be for the French coaches NOT to tell Giroud he’s jeopardising his international career but not playing
What publicly?
How is that ethical?
It’s double standards…
Yes, because footballers are employees of the clubs not their possessions and if a player wishes to leave because he’s unhappy he has the right to do so, this has been dealt with in the Bosman case. Now if not going to the World Cup would make Giroud unhappy and going to the World Cup is dependent on him getting significant game time at his club the only ethical solution would be to tell him so. Which is what is happening. What would be unethical is tell him it didn’t matter when it does, especially as there are provisions in… Read more »
Iwobi is better than Giroud, Ozil, Sanchez and Lacazette combine.
very strange from stephan and deschamps. it looks like they are giving some excuses in order to select another forward.but ollie has become a very popular figure in france cause he keeps on scoring game after game. and the old argument of playing time is so fake when it comes to deschamps. he is been selecting sissoko, matudi, and so many others who have become fringe players .ollie will be at the wc whatever his playing time, unless he is injured. i hope they are putting pressure on arsene wenger to use the duo lacazette giroud .cause its very questionnable… Read more »
Credit to Giroud. Never kicks up a fuss, gets on with it and continues to produce the goods and constantly reaffirms his desire to help the club compete for honours. Apart from City with Jesus, we are 1 of the few clubs who can boast having a quality international striker as a backup to another quality striker.
Woe betide that Giroud goes into the world cup relatively fresh and ready… play more Olivier. Burnout as you always do in April and then we will take you!
maybe a loan in france would do him good