Much as I want everyone to enjoy the site for as long as possible, I can probably save you the effort of reading this post in the upcoming first sentence. The fantasy premier league future of Olivier Giroud for fantasy premier league managers hinges on the future of Robin Van Persie. If RVP stays then you have a bit part player who will probably be an impact sub at best but invaluable in keeping RVP away from the Carling and FA cups. If RVP (although it would have to be before the Barclays fantasy premier league site opens) leaves then you have the potential of having the dominant Arsenal striker for a team that scored 74 goals, 3rd behind only the 2 Manchester clubs. However value in fantasy premier league isn’t everything. Aaron Ramsey at £6.5m after Fabregas and Nasri left offered so much potential as the dominant attacking midfield presence but in the end delivered so little to fantasy premier league managers.
Career to date.
The 6’3″ 25 year old French international striker finished last year as the top goal scorer in the French league with 21 goals and 9 assists from 36 games for the unfancied French Champions Montpellier.
Girouds career started relatively slowly 25 goals in 5 seasons and 79 games for small French sides Grenoble, Istres and Tours. Interestingly he only contributed 2 assists in those games. His breakthrough season came in 2009-2010 when he scored 21 goals and 7 assists in 38 games for Tours in the French second division
He then moved to Montepellier where he scored 12 goals and 2 assists in 37 games before the season where he came to Europes attention as mentioned above.
He certainly had a quiet Euro 2012 coming on as a sub in 3 games for total minutes of 32 minutes and made little impression so there should be no issues of tiredness for fantasy premier league managers
Fantasy premier League prospects
So what are the prospects then for fantasy premier league managers regarding Olivier Giroud this season. Without repeating the introduction above it will probably depend on what happens with RVP. If RVP stays then I see little prospect of much game time. Arsene Wenger believes in 4-3-3 going to 4-5-1 on defence. Its hard to see that Giroud has the mobility or physicality for being one of the front 3. He is a traditional No 9 and you would think he was born in Cheltenham rather than Chambery. In any case, the remaining positions are sure to be occupied by Podolski and Walcott. His fantasy premier league season will be to focused on playing in the Carling and FA cups to ensure RVP doesn’t need to and to give a more direct option late in games. There is some theories being put around that RVP would play as part of 3 in 4-2-3-1 along with Podolski and Walcott with Giroud as the main striker. I’m not convinced of this, why would you change an attack that worked last season to accommodate Giroud. It would make no sense to me. If RVP leaves, at least after the Fantasy premier league season opens, then you have a potential fantasy premier league bargain heading the Arsenal attack. The main question here will be Girouds adjustment to the league, certainly Chamakh never adjusted from the same league but he didn’t have anything like the goal scoring record of Giroud and was really a free transfer squad player. Also would he be able to handle the pressure of being the main source of goals for Arsenal. In addition RVP seemed to carry the team on his own. How many goals would you expect with the only really creative force being Arteta and an ageing Rosicky. However, the high amount of assists and general reports of his all round ability and skill in holding the ball up plus his physical nature are a positive way of looking at his fantasy premier league prospects in a no RVP world at Arsenal.
My own feeling is that RVP will go as £30m for a 29 year old in the last season of his contract makes total business sense. No matter how much Arsene believes that he will sign next year given Arsenals imminent silverware, the money men will win over. The good news for fantasy premier league managers is that Arsenal will keep the negotiations alive for some time meaning RVP will be on their books until well after the barclasy fantasy premier league game opens.
To me then he is a possible option although I am not wild on Arsenals opening 6 fantasy premier league games:
Sunderland H
Stoke A
Liverpool A
Southampton H
Man City A
Chelsea H
and this will probably mean that even with the tempting value he doesn’t make my fantasy premier league initial cut.
sources: Wikipedia
