Arsenal: Olivier Giroud should be disappointed, but it was time

Olivier Giroud has said he was disappointed to leave Arsenal on January transfer deadline day. However, it was time for him to move on, and I believe that he, and Arsene Wenger, recognised that.

Olivier Giroud was a faithful servant throughout his five-and-a-half seasons in an Arsenal shirt. The much-maligned centre-forward, who sometimes laboured and at other times staggered, was rarely a popular figure.

In fact, his recognition, reputation and public standing seemed to have an inverse relationship with the amount of playing time he received. The more he played, the less he was adorned; the less he played, the greater the gushings of fans’ affections. I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

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So when, in the January transfer window, Giroud signed for Chelsea as a part of a complex three-way deal that saw Michy Batshuayi sign with Borussia Dortmund on loan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang replace Giroud in North London, fans were a little split on the club’s decision to sanction the move. Strengthening a direct rival. Losing the best plan B in world football. Adding one of the most prolific strikers of the past two or three years. No one knew what to think, or feel. Well, no one other than Giroud.

If there was anything in this deal that was never questioned, it was that Giroud wanted to leave and there was one, overarching, plain and obvious reason why: The World Cup. Here is Giroud, speaking to Telefoot, about why he chose to leave, raising concerns regarding the competition in the Arsenal squad with the addition of Aubameyang:

"“The fact is that the coach wanted to recruit a new striker and with Aubameyang’s signing at Arsenal, there were three top strikers, and that’s why I decided to leave. It made sense for me to take a new direction in my career. There was a bit of disappointment, even though I spent five wonderful years there. I could have stayed, but I needed a solution to get back in. I wanted to stay in the Premier League and Chelsea was a great opportunity for me.”"

All of those worries that he held were, and still are, justified. Certainly, Wenger wanted a more mobile strikeforce. That has been proven not just with the most recent addition of Aubameyang, but also by the decision to break the club transfer record in the summer to secure the services of Alexandre Lacazette, another whose game is built on sharp, anticipatory, quick movement skills.

And it is fair to assume that Giroud would only see the pitch even less than he had already this year — he has made just one Premier League start, for instance. In a year in which his battle to make the French squad and then, hopefully, start for the summer’s World Cup, such limited playing time was deemed unacceptable by Didier Deschamps.

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Giroud needed to leave. Wenger wanted, and had, to replace him. It’s sad to see him go, but the time had come, and I think, while he may be disappointed, he knows it.