Why Everton must look to hijack West Ham’s Olivier Giroud signing
West Ham are eyeing a sensational January swoop for Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud, claims the Daily Mirror.
The Hammers have a long-standing interest in the 32-year-old Frenchman, who has less than a year left on his contract at Stamford Bridge. The report says West Ham made a tentative approach for Olivier Giroud before his arrival at Chelsea from Arsenal in January.
But now Manuel Pellegrini wants to add firepower to this attack and Giroud is being targeted as the prime man. With the Hammers targeting Giroud in January, Everton should hijack the deal. Here’s why.
Everton have struggled for consistency at the start of the new Premier League season under Marco Silva. The Toffees have struggled for goals so far this season as Silva’s attack has disappointed to a great extent.
When Everton paid big bucks back in January to sign Cenk Tosun from Besiktas, the Turkish international was expected to fill the big boots of Romelu Lukaku and shoulder the responsibility of scoring goals. Fast forward to October and into the new season, Tosun is yet to really set the world alight for the Merseysiders and has scored just once in eight league appearances this term.
The centre-forward has scored six goals in 24 goals across all competitions for Everton and certainly needs to do a lot more if he intends to break into the current XI. But Silva definitely cannot rely on the Turkish hit-man and must try signing Giroud.
Giroud arrived at Chelsea from Arsenal in January for £18m and managed to force his way into the team under former boss Antonio Conte, ending the season as the first choice ahead of Alvaro Morata. He also helped the Blues win the 2018 FA Cup final with a 1-0 win over Manchester United at Wembley Stadium. The 32-year-old also played a key role for France in their World Cup triumph.
After guiding Les Blues to World Cup glory, Giroud has returned to Chelsea and has nailed down a regular birth under new manager Maurizio Sarri. The Frenchman is yet to score in seven league appearances but he’s kept Morata out of the picture. That goes onto explain how effective Giroud is despite not scoring a single goal in the Sarri revolution at Stamford Bridge.
At 32 years of age, Giroud is not going to improve any further but he would be the ideal short-term solution to Everton’s problems.
Players like Richarlison, Bernard and Gylfi Sigurdsson would be licking their lips to have Giroud as a central striker due to the Frenchman’s aerial prowess and physicality in the box. In short, the 32-year-old World Cup winner could be the missing link to Everton’s attack.
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Hence, Silva must make Giroud a priority in January as the French star would be a great coup for the Toffees due to his fine goal-scoring record in the Premier League.