Was the Arsenal fanbase too hard on Giroud - France's all time leading goalscorer?

[2Smokeyy]

Big facts.

 

[Rain Dance]

Rex, you know where I stand. Not gonna start this again.

PS : Other than Giroud, the one thing I got proven right all these years, Özil wasn't that much of a scoring goal threat. Ødegaard is well on his way as a better AMC.

 

[Ciscoo]

Giroud was a very good signing at just £10m. Had we signed Suarez in 2013, we’d have gotten more out of him than France did.

 

[GunnerShy]

WC, Serie A, 4 FA Cups, champions league, Europa League, Ligue Un.

Donkey apparently. Useless.

Sold him for 10m. Bought Lacathreat for 55m?? Sums it up really. It was a great move for his career though.

He was never on the top wrung of Strikers, but we only had one player who was top class in his position - Sanchez. You could argue Cazorla but injuries limited his output. This guy was the consummate professional and warrior.

He got blamed unfairly for a collective lack of bottle. Which is why he flourished when he went elsewhere.

Ultimately though, it’s all history now. If we had him last year, maybe we’d have finished 4th.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Giroud was awful to watch week in week out but I feel like he should've been back up/rotation. Arsène didn't do him any favours playing him every game basically.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Yes, Giroud has squeezed ever ounce of ability he has into making a wonderful career for himself, far better than he had any right to have. We couldn't have asked for any more for him.

Watching Lacazette for all those years changed my opinion on Giroud. I thought he was bad but we paid 50m for a downgrade which is crazy.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

FWIW though, I just don't think he was best suited to our style, I think we kept going back to him because he was so dependable. But let's not forget throughout his time here Wenger did try Podolski, Gervinho, Walcott, Welbeck and Alexis all as strikers and then eventually signed Laca before finally fully replacing him with Auba. I think we got a glimpse into our full attacking potentially both in 2015 with Theo up front and in 2016 with Alexis we looked much more fluid. Giroud however was dependable and always available for the most part, pretty sure he broke a bone in his foot one year and only had like 2 months off.

Man all those players you named apart from Alexis were mediocre. Arsène really thought he was some genius that could win the league with dogsh*t, bit too arrogant or idealistic for me.

 

[jones]

Disregarding everything else I've never seen a striker with worse shooting technique than him. It's not horrible per se, he can get a nice curl on the ball and has good power behind his shots but whenever he takes aim his accuracy is dogshit and his trigger release is the slowest and worst in the history of humanity. Literally running in quicksand nightmare stuff.

Definitely made the absolute most out of his talent and could've been better for us with different players surrounding him, but we're not judging Xhaka's bulk of his Arsenal career by saying "he'd have been world class if he had prime Kanté next to him" either do we. Felt violated after that Monaco game, even if it's in 30 years from now him and Ox will catch these hands if I buck them.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

 

[Henry boi]

Has Wenger to thank for his career, if Wenger doesn't come calling for him, he would have never made it unlike the others, good player at best nothing more, and to answer the question, he was treated fairly if you look at his performances with us.

 

[14Henry]

Was a perfectly good and effective squad player. Not a start but definitely a player capable of changing the game in the last 20 mins if needing a goal.

Our problem was we didn't use him like that. It's all fair and well saying he won x y and z but he wasn't a main player at Chelsea nor AC Milan. His form for France was really top and he somehow found another level with them. That said their squad is elite and basically most games are easy for them.

Nowhere near the level of Sanchez or peak Auba. But Lacazette level yes.

 

[say yes]

People say Giroud would have been a good squad player but his ego would have never settled for that.

Demanded a move after only 6 months of being a backup here, and was also unhappy with his usage at Chelsea.

 

[Slug457]

He just didn't have the talent to be leading the line week in week out for a PL title winning side.

Think that sums it up well really. The expectations back then was to win the league with top 4 a given, so a very good/top 4 level striker, but not quite league winning striker, was never going to be beloved. 3 FA cups in 4 meant little. For a guy who didn't even go pro till 21 and spent his early 20s bouncing around the French lower divisions, what a career though. Wenger did a fine job helping his development, good signing for 9.5M.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Has Wenger to thank for his career, if Wenger doesn't come calling for him, he would have never made it unlike the others, good player at best nothing more, and to answer the question, he was treated fairly if you look at his performances with us.

I disagree. You have to give credit where it’s due. Yes a manager can improve/impair a player, but ultimately it’s down to the player to do the hard work.

Giroud won the league with Montpellier and was top scorer before he came here. He wasn’t a nobody and I believe Chelsea showed some interest. I think he’s a player who got better with age and he’s living life in Milan. I despised him at first because he was too big of a drop from RvP and I was elated to finally see the back of him. And then Lacazette came along. And well I realise now I was too harsh on Oli G. At least he’s a Premier League striker.

 

[Rex Stone]

People say Giroud would have been a good squad player but his ego would have never settled for that.

Demanded a move after only 6 months of being a backup here, and was also unhappy with his usage at Chelsea.

Was he proven wrong? Key part in Chelsea winning the CL and been so good at Milan as well considering he arrived with little fanfare.

Story of his career is that he’s been counted out and slept on every time he’s left a club but he’s always found a way through.

 

[RunTheTrap]

People say Giroud would have been a good squad player but his ego would have never settled for that.

Demanded a move after only 6 months of being a backup here, and was also unhappy with his usage at Chelsea.

Is it an ego or is it ambition? He was a starter for Arsenal for 4 years, and then lost his starting position at the age of 30. He still had some gas in the tank and rightly wanted more in his career. I don’t begrudge him for wanting out. I’d much rather sell a player who wants more in their career, than someone who is happy collecting a pay check on the bench.

 

[Entropics]

The fanbase was also too hard with Lacazette, no clue why he's being brought up here

I would only blame him if he was involved in bringing Mikel Arteta as manager, otherwise he was consistently one of our best players.

 

[sergio_giorgini]

Man all those players you named apart from Alexis were mediocre. Arsène really thought he was some genius that could win the league with dogsh*t, bit too arrogant or idealistic for me.

Honestly most of our fanbase have no idea just how much Wenger’s arrogance set the club back.

 

[Dokaka]

I said back when you signed Lacazette that you basically signed a side-grade on Giroud but with different strengths and weaknesses, and I think that's largely been true.

Good striker and probably did get more blame than he should have given what we've seen since then, but he has always been incredibly inconsistent when it comes to actually putting the ball into the back of the net. One of those players with GOAT worthy highlight reels but incredibly frustrating to watch game to game.

The man's inconsistency arguably cost you the title in 15/16. Dude went ****ing 4 months or so without scoring a goal in a season where you finished 2nd, and that was him starting every game with a peak Özil and Sanchez behind him. Genuinely one of the worst goal droughts I can remember, dude played like 14 hours of Premier League football without scoring a single goal as the main man up front for a title contender.

Top top player, and a beautiful human being.

Didn't he literally get caught in his underwear cheating on his wife? Not a great character trait in my book.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

Didn't he literally get caught in his underwear cheating on his wife? Not a great character trait in my book.

I see you are a proponent of the "beauty comes from within" school of thought. France not having the best of night in København tonight it seems...