Prolific striker: I came close to joining Everton this summer
By Abigail Withey
Olivier Giroud has revealed that he was close to quitting Arsenal this summer and has said that his reason for not completing a move was simply down to a “private decision”.
The 30-year-old was strongly linked with a move to Everton for a majority of the summer transfer window, and the Liverpool Echo report he also attracted attention from the likes of West Ham United and Olympique Marseille.
However, despite failing to regularly start for the Gunners and becoming frustrated at being a late substitution the Frenchman has revealed that he wanted to stay at the North London club despite being close to leaving.
“It was a private decision. It’s true I was close to leaving because I wanted to play,” Giroud said, as quoted by the Liverpool Echo.
“But after a big reflection with everyone around me like my family and close friends, I wanted to stay at Arsenal.
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“I thought the story was not over at Arsenal. The club has given me a lot, I want to win some more trophies.
“As I said to the boss, our story is not finished, and everyone was pleased with that.”
Giroud joined Arsene Wenger’s side back in 2012 from French outfit Montpellier and has since made a total of 232 appearances for the Gunners.
During that time the forward has scored 99 goal across all competitions and will be hoping to reach his century milestone for the club during his side’s Europa League group stage match against FC Koln at the Emirates on Thursday.
Since losing star goal scorer Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United over the summer Ronald Koeman has appeared to have limited options up front.
Jamie Carragher recently spoke on Sky’s Monday Night Football show about Everton’s centre-forward issue and stated that despite signing Sandro Ramirez, the Toffees boss should have focussed on signing a new frontman.