Olivier Giroud is likely to stay at Chelsea until the summer as long as his game time doesn’t change significantly from now until the end of January – these were the words via Matt Law of The Telegraph a couple of weeks back when Giroud was firing.
In the space of days, things could have now changed significantly. Tammy Abraham started against West Ham, played well and scored two goals – meaning that he is unlikely to be dropped from the starting line up for important matches as first choice striker any time soon.
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This could force Giroud to once again consider his future at Chelsea. He needs to be a regular starter in order to be ready and keep his place in the France national side for this summers Euros, I can only see him playing as a rotation striker for Chelsea as and when needed, especially when our wingers are all back and fully fit as this will surely see Timo Werner move back to a central spot.
I agreed with Matt Law when he wrote his article, but the more I look at the circumstances now the more I can only see Giroud asking to leave the club in January and not seeing out his contract until the summer.
Where would that leave Chelsea? Without any real issues I feel. As I said, with the wingers back fit Werner and Abraham will be competing for the one centre forward spot, then you also have Kai Havertz who many believe plays much better as a centre forward or as a very advanced number 10/false 9 – so he is another excellent option to use there.
Chelsea would still be stacked with options, and could even look to bring in an extra striker as backup if needed. I’m not sure if they would sanction a Giroud move if he asked for it, but he has only ever been a model professional for the club, so they would probably like to return the favour if it was feasible.
I don’t want to sell Giroud by the way, I think he is under rated and a great striker, but I can’t see him getting his desired game time with all things considered, and if I was Chelsea, I would feel obliged to allow him to leave.
