Arsenal announced the signing of Olivier Giroud on Tuesday for a reported £12 million,
adding to an impressive list of names that manager Arsene Wenger has lured to
the club over the summer.
The Montpellier striker joins German Lukas Podolski in what
will be a beefed up and altogether more potent looking attack alongside captain
Robin van Persie.
Olivier Giroud is set to join Arsenal from Montpellier
I suspect this latest willingness to splash some cash on
some of Europe’s top players is in response to van Persie’s own contract
negotiations that took place at the end of last season. With the well documented drought in silverware,
stretching back to 2004, it would have been understandable had the Dutchman decided
to leave in search for success elsewhere.
Instead, he has decided to remain at the club, but clearly
made some demands, not least that he needs help up front to aid Arsenal in
winning those crucial games. Even with a
league topping haul of 30 goals last term, he knows as well as any Gunners fan that he
cannot carry the team alone. How many
times did he singlehandedly win games or claim points last season? More to the
point, how many games did Arsenal lose out on because they couldn’t score? One
man is easy to defend. Three isn’t.
Wenger is clearly looking at a title push this year, and is
backing up his captain by acquiring exactly the right sort of player, the sort
of player that is already proven and doesn’t require 2 or 3 years to make an
impact.
25 year old Giroud scored 21 goals for Montpellier last
season as they claimed the Ligue 1 title and Podolski is a well-known commodity, becoming the youngest player to
reach 100 caps for his country earlier this month at Euro 2012 at the age of just 26.
With these sort of additions to the squad, as well as the continual improvement of Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain, I suspect Arsenal
may well be a contending force for the 2012/13 season.
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