Giroud booed off by France fans

Olivier Giroud was booed off the pitch after being subbed due to a disappointing display in France’s win over Belarus last night. Giroud said the following about being booed off:

“Being in the French team’s starting XI is always a privilege. However, I was a little disappointed to be substituted.

“When you are a forward you need time and try to not listen to the fans, above all at Stade de France, where the audience is always a little special.”

Giroud hasn’t had the best of starts to his Arsenal career, but let’s not forget that we are only three games into the season. The likes of Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry were slow starters, but they turned out good. By no means am I saying you should expect Giroud to be a player that will score 100+ goals for Arsenal in his career, but I’ve seen people saying “he’s worse than Chamakh” and other similar comments. Before last month he had never played in the Premier League and he hadn’t spent a long time in the French top flight either. He has gone down a similar career path to Laurent Koscielny. If you remember, Koscielny had a slow start and his first year was very up and down, but his second year was much better. What I am saying is, give him time. If his international and club fans give him stick straight away, he’s going to feel all that pressure on him and it will make scoring that first Arsenal goal even harder.

Giroud was booed off whilst on international duty. He needs time to settle into English football. Give him time, goals will come.