Arsenal: Higuain, Giroud Swap Defeats The Purpose

Arsenal’s link with Gonzalo Higuain is inexplicably heating up, and for whatever reason, people want him swapped for Olivier Giroud. Why? Just why?

Most of the time, when people don’t appreciate Olivier Giroud, I just brush it off. The Arsenal man is not going to be fazed by it and he will continue to go out there and create goal scoring opportunities. If he doesn’t care, why should I?

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But I said ‘most of the time’. The rest of the time, it bugs the living hell out of me, and I’m having one of those days. First, it was calls for Griezmann to replace Giroud. Now, it is erroneous rumors that Arsenal are offering Giroud and £40m+ for Gonzalo Higuain.

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How many ways can I haughtily laugh at this ridiculous rumor? Call me crazy, but I wouldn’t take a straight swap. It defeats the purpose of this whole ordeal. I just ranted and raved about how wonderful it would be to pair Giroud and Griezmann. Now, I am fully prepared to rant and rave about how Higuain has nothing to offer Arsenal.

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: Arsenal needs a striker that can offer something different that what Giroud offers. A pacey, technically sound striker that can slice and dice opposing defenses and time his runs better than Theo Walcott. That is what Arsenal needs. They don’t need to overhaul their striking corp or whip out some silly replacements. They just need to compliment Giroud with the aforementioned striker type.

Higuain doesn’t do that. And if we get rid of Giroud and bring in Higuain, we would still need a striker like that. Because Then we would have another Giroud type striker in Higuain and no secondary striker. Do we see the developing problem yet?

Not only that, but are we all having short-term memory loss? Higuain has never in his life had a year like last year. He scored more than his previous two years at Napoli combined. So our reaction is to say, ‘let’s bring in that potentiallyone-hit wonder 28 year old striker that is clearly inconsistent and needs time to acclimate to new environments and replace the guy who has kept us in contention for years’.

Where is the sense in that? I get that Higuain can score goals. Yippee. So can a lot of other people. But he isn’t consistent at all. One look at his history will tell you that. It’s all about acclimating, something Arsenal cannot afford a 28 year old time to do.

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Napoli want an ungodly sum for this guy. The fact that people are even considering that Arsenal should pursue him is bad enough. Adding to that the concept that Giroud should be offered as bate is grounds for immediate admission into a psychiatric ward.

Olivier Giroud just had a fantastic Euros, helping Griezmann become the sweetheart of the tournament and still people can’t see past a couple missed chances. Meanwhile, Higuain missed the biggest open chance in the history of the world and we want to send Olivier Giroud and £40m+ to lock him up right away.

And if you want to tell me I can’t judge Higuain based on one missed chance, that’s fine, but I’ve seen Giroud crucified for less. To be fair to Higuain, I am judging him on far more than this one missed chance. The guy isn’t consistent, that should be all I have to say. He is a big, strength-based striker that isn’t consistent. Doesn’t that sound oddly like what most label Giroud? So let’s shell out Giroud and the sum Arsenal used on Ozil to secure him. Right. Makes total sense.

I would have understood breaking the bank to sign Higuain in 2013. Give him a couple years to get used to the Premier League and at 27, 28 years old, he’s piling up the goals. But it’s so impractical now, between the price and the time constraint, that there is just no time for nonsense like this.

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What am I missing here? Someone help me understand the logic behind such an absurd transaction.