Arsenal have been trying extremely hard to trim the ‘heavy’ squad and have been reasonably successful, but one player who was offered the chance to leave to gain first team football was the French international Olivier Giroud, who was set to be dropped down the pecking order after the arrival of Alexandre Lacazette, and will be even less in demand now that Alexis Sanchez is expected to stay at Arsenal this season.
Giroud is currently first choice for the French national side, but that could be put in jeopardy if he doesn’t get many games for the Gunners and he would have had a much better chance of going to the World Cup next summer if he was playing regularly, and even more so if he was performing well for a top French side. But he has now revealed that he turned down two moves to top French clubs in Marseille and Lyon.
Speaking to French television, Giroud said: “I did not reject Marseille. I just told the coach when I got it on the phone… Actually I got it on the phone once it was released in the press […]. After a while [Rudi Garcia] wanted to know if I was interested or not by the project of the Olympique de Marseille.
“I always said that it was not an option for me to return to France, at least not in the near future. So it was not in relation to Marseille, since the project is very ambitious and very interesting. But it was not for me.
“The fact of returning to France was never an option. So here it was not personally compared to Marseille because there was also Lyon. Although I am very flattered to have been courted by these two great French clubs.”
I can imagine that Arsene Wenger offered Oli the chance to leave, but would have said he would remain as backup to Lacazette as Le Prof expected Alexis to leave. How many chances will he get now?
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Worst pc of s*h*t business by arsenal. Bunch of teens running the club. Draxler, mahrez, lemar no1 wants to come to arsenal. Arsenal is officially a joke now. Screwed up board and manager and CEOs. Now we have an unhappy player in sanchez on our hands, missed out on a quality player Lemar, Din’t go after a decent winger or Midfielder, Sold our RWB Ox without finding any replacement, sold our best defender in Gabriel, Sold left back for peanuts. CEO should be fired. It is criminal what has happened at such a big club. I am disgusted to my core….
I could not have said it any better. Thank you.
Wenger rejected the director of football so that he could keep his usual stup*dity, and he succeeded, now we reap what we sow by letting him stay more even after showing who he really is
Our best defender was Gabriel? Nope. Besides that pretty spot on.
Finally the window is shut so I can have some peace. But honestly, words cannot describe how disappointed I am. Nonetheless, out of this tragedy, we must rise and support the team we love. We have two seasons at most to endure more pain from our disillusioned old manager and God knows when from the American Lynch. Only our solidarity and massive support can spur our disgruntled and disdained players to winning ways. COYG
What makes you think it is only 2 seasons. We need to get these guys out now by making their life hell through protests.
JUST IN:Barcelona bid £60m for Mesut Ozil.The Spanish transfer window closes tomorrow.
*€60m
Hmmmmm very interesting
Just stop your BS, you sad f#*cker.
NOBODY BELIEVES YOU.
Shhhh “leo” shhh
@Victor Victory, you are contradicting yourself, if we ‘support our beloved’ arsenal under Wenger, we are basically giving Wenger five years contract extension in advance.
The best way to support the club is to not support it openly now. You can support the club in front of the telly in your bedroom!
All we have to support and enjoy this season is a well organised and consistent WENGEROUT crusade!
Goodness mine, I can’t really believe the man didn’t actually bring players in!
He seems to be sure that the fans are so divided that we can’t march him out. How disdainful!
This is the best comment I have read this morning!
Oli for me is a great back-up for the “lost of hopes” during the 90’…his head think twice more than his legs,. Laca should be the regular starter, then Oli be like the the fame artist who always come at the end of the show to bring the party’s vibe with a good header or scorpion kick(hahaha déjà vu) and brings 3 points in the pocket..
meanwhile, if you still remember his assist of tonight France game, then your line-up will change as much as you love that pass to Griezmann today..#OliStyleofPlaying
be a gooner forever Oliiiiiiiii
Lemar and Mahrez were almost begging to come here. Minimum were happy to come here. Lemar must have been making calls tonight telling people he was coming. Wenger bottled it.
Spurs have ambition. They signed Aurier. They already have a better defense than us. They signed Llorente too.
Honestly I don’t see us making the Top 4 or winning Europa. Meaning next summer players like Lemar will have no interest whatsoever in boarding a sinking ship.
Wenger is a delusional buffoon
Arsenal has become a ‘reactive’ club. Our transfer strategy isn’t based on some sound planning and analysis of what we need to improve and compete, but rather on knee jerk reactions to what’s happening in the transfer market. AW is no longer the manager he once was who had a brilliant eye for hidden talents and who embraced new methods and tactics. Today, he’s just a shell of that former self, timid, stubborn, narrow minded and thin skinned, and unable to motivate himself and his players…
When the bell end referred to a catalyst for change he obviously referred to bad changes for the club.
Starting with the idiot being given another contract.
Wenger, Kroenke and Gazidis are a terminal diagnosis for Arsenal.
Just f**k off world
Good for him…happy to see that an individual can be loyal but clearly if he turned down 2 offers it surely means that AFC was still the better prospect or dare I say project…
Too many questions too ask from this botched, disastrous window. No clear organization, direction and just a club all over the place. Be it for contract rebels and how to deal with for each case, the timing and going for the identified targets by aligning ourselves with the reality of the market…
Many, many questions that hopefully this time nobody will allow them to get away with…as fans also we must unite as one Arsenal. Even if the team does well between now and the season end’s. A window like this should never be allowed to happen again. And if it gets worse well change required in January or before…Prime candidate Tuchel on a free. Otherwise Jardim.
We missed so many: Goretzka, Renato Sanchez, Draxler, Brandt, Fosberg, N’zonzi, Carvalho, Lemar, Seri, Krychowiak, Coulibaly, Kostas Manolas, Van Djik, Ross Barkley and than some…but with all the revenu that we make on matchday, commercial deals, kit manufacturer and simply the Arsenal brand we had no money availbale as the Lacazette deal used all of our money LOL…sure…Spurs are building a stadium yet still spent…we are net positive what a shame!!!
How could a team that claims to be a top four team end the transfer window making a profit? Didn’t Gazidis state last year when Arsenal missed out on the UCL that things were going to be different. I admit I fell for his lies. I didn’t think it could get worse. Wenger is tighter than a nun’s @#@$% with the money as well as a control freak. Won’t let anybody else tell him what he should do. Arrogant, selfish, greedy and so misguided. I think he is Bi-Polar!!!
Lemar didn’t reject arsenal in favor Liverpool, that story is false,the reason why he didn’t sign was there was no time for him to do so,he was already in the France squad this evening, is already too late for him to make his decision whether to go and not and no time for medical, and to agree personal terms that’s why…..for real I don’t want Sanchez to but I am scared of his body language when we are not playing well,or in the dressing room,….I don’t buy the idea of one good player is in and another one is out….I prefer to watch their two in the same team but I know I am dreaming
Why would Lemar wants want to go to a club in absolute shambles? and with a manager that might bench him for big games for no rhyme or reason. The lack of time was just an excuse. He’d have jumped on the offer 10 years ago with The Invincibles. It is so sad that Arsenal is no longer the top club that all top talents across Europe dreamed to be part of.
There are obviously three non-arsenal supporters out there who disagree with this comment.
No Arsenal fan who would call themselves an Arsenal fan would have any confidence in the Arsenal “management” or have anything positive to say about all of this.
There is nothing positive to say about this..
Any players with any kind of ambition will join arsenal under wenger at the moment.
You must be joking…
Atleast we still have a good attack for next few months, Sanchez, Ozil, Lacazette. I bet we don’t even see that combo just like we didn’t see Perez, Sanchez and Ozil any one time together.
What’s the point of signing players if they are going to be benched for the big games or played totally out of position?
The club’s top problem is the manager not the lack of signings. Any competent manager will have a decent shot at top 4 with the current squad. With AW? We might fall behind Everton…
He missed his chance to jump ship. I can’t even imagine how horrible the atmosphere around the addressing room and the stadium in the next 48 months while Wenger is still in charge.
@AB. @tobby1983. I share your disappointment. No true arsenal fan is happy at the massive mess, delinquency and ineptitude spreading from the board to the field of play in our beloved club. I am in Nigeria and it’s 3:39am. I can’t sleep because I am thinking of what I will face from rival fans tomorrow. Sport Radio FM is out of it because we are their joke anthem. But it’s our club and must savage it. Protest at this stage will be counter productive. The board will not listen. The Lynch is Concerned about his pulse. Wenger is the third highest paid epl manager. He rob the Lynch back and the Lynch does same in return. The grade A players in the team know this fact. Hence I suggest we support and motivate them. We are in it together.
I disagreed with you, protect is the only way to get Wenger out of this club, we must be united against me prof else this club will go on relegation
So glad Olivier is still with us! He will fight hard to perform, if not just out of personal pride and character, out of desire for minutes and maintaining his viability with the French national team, and his desire to show his is just as good, or at least has some unique skills, in comparison to Lacazette.
Wenger is hopeless man just to old for this new generation football coaches