Arsenal: Assessing Olivier Giroud’s Open Market Value

Arsenal’s out-of-form striker Olivier Giroud has scored one goal in his last twenty appearances. How valuable is the Frenchman to the Gunners at the moment?

Olivier Giroud has undoubtedly had a miserable 2016, with not only his form but his team’s form sliding from top-level to very average over the course of a few months.

The misfiring Frenchman has gone thirteen hours without scoring a goal for Arsenal in the Premier League, a statistic that has been making the rounds on the internet after Giroud’s lackluster showing against Sunderland at the weekend.

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Unsurprisingly, fans have been clamoring for the sale of Giroud, in favor of a big money signing in the summer as his replacement.

If Arsene Wenger were to put Giroud on the transfer list, what kind of financial reward would he get for it? And if Giroud stays at the Emirates for the time being, what value does he have to his club?

According to market value assessment websites like transfermarkt and squawka, Giroud’s market value has been increasing ever since he joined Arsenal. That’s not surprising, considering the Frenchman joined for only twelve million pounds from Ligue 1 and has since scored fifteen-plus goals in all competitions three seasons running.

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What is astonishing is that his market value reached its peak – a whopping 27 million pounds – in February 2016, and has not dipped since. While Giroud has that ‘market value’, it doesn’t mean that’s what a team will pay for him. However, what a team would probably pay for him now is a fraction of that sum.

Giroud has hit his highest overall total this season with twenty goals this season, but saying that he has twenty goals across all competitions doesn’t show the full picture.

(When you’re a striker at a club that’s masquerading as a title challenger, you need to be getting twenty-plus, at least.)

Aside from a huge hat-trick against Olympiakos on match day six of the Champions League and a brace in a 3-3 draw with Liverpool in mid-January, Giroud has no multi-goal games this season. It may seem like a lot to expect that of a player, but consistency has been a real issue for Giroud.

It’s simply not enough to be good for half of a season. Fans may say that Arsenal would be better with Alexis Sanchez up front or Danny Welbeck as striker, but the Gunners were clearly putting together some of their best offensive showings with Giroud in good form.

Both Sanchez and Welbeck can play as forwards, but they don’t have the same presence in the center as Giroud. What might be more beneficial is if Arsenal played with three forwards and three midfield players, one of which was a creative playmaker (Mesut Ozil), and had Olivier Giroud as the center forward holding up the ball.

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20-20 hindsight like this is great at the end of the campaign, but evaluating the current circumstances, Giroud is totally out-of-form and one year away from being the wrong side of 30 years old.

Since he’s a player who can do a lot with one touch and doesn’t run a whole lot with the ball, Giroud might be just as effective when he gets older. However, as we’ve seen this season, teams are figuring out how to defend Arsenal’s attacking play, and the play itself has looked incredibly stale.

More than anything, what’s needed is a change to revitalize the team. A change at striker would be great, and Arsenal will have to sacrifice some business pride if they choose to sell the Frenchman. Based on his current form – which probably won’t improve before Premier League match day 38 – they’ll be very lucky to get even ten million pounds for him. It wouldn’t be surprising to see him leave for something like six million.

If Giroud does stay at Arsenal this summer (considering the stubbornness of the coach, he probably will) the future is even murkier. He’s never been good as a role player or a super-substitute, but he’s proven again and again not good enough to lead Arsenal anywhere above fourth place.

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A good EURO 2016 tournament for Giroud would probably do him a world of good heading into the 2016-17 edition of Arsenal F.C. Though, looking to the past in order to predict the future it might be a short-lived spell of goal-scoring.