Olivier Giroud takes a dig at Tottenham Hotspur while opening up about his time at Chelsea
Olivier Giroud opened up about the period when he wanted to leave Chelsea, via The Sun, and said that in the desperation to leave the Blues, he even considered joining Tottenham Hotspur.
The 35-year-old had fallen out of favour in the Stamford Bridge side under Frank Lampard and wanted to leave to play more. Jose Mourinho, the Spurs boss at the time, wanted to bring Giroud to the North London club.
“I was so desperate to leave that I even told Lampard that I’d have joined Tottenham because I knew that Jose Mourinho wanted me.”
The French world Cup winner spent six years with our fierce rivals. He featured 253 times for Arsenal and scored 105 goals for them. In the 2018/19 season, the striker ended his association with the Gunners and joined Chelsea.
With the Blues, Giroud was mostly a utility player and started just seven games in the Premier League in his first season with the Stamford Bridge side. He was seen as a backup by every manager but still performed for the club, scoring 39 goals in 119 appearances.
By the end of his time under Lampard, the striker was behind other options in the pecking order for the Chelsea legend and Giroud spent most of his time on the bench. During that period, the 35-year-old wanted to leave the Blues.
“In the end, I think it would have been difficult because I had played for Arsenal.”
But Lampard was sacked mid-season and Thomas Tuchel opted to keep Giroud in his squad as an option. He didn’t feature much under the new manager either, but the France international got a Champions League medal at the end of it all.
Giroud at Tottenham had disaster written all over it. If he had joined the Lilywhites, who knows how fans would’ve received him. A North London rival for years, the crowd wasn’t too keen on the player.
At that time under Mourinho, Harry Kane was the only natural striker in the squad and Mourinho could’ve done with a backup for our talisman. But Giroud had Kane ahead of him if the 35-year-old had decided to join our club.
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Tottenham are currently building a strong squad and after many years, fans will feel the squad is deep enough. We go into the season confident of competing for silverware and breaking the 14-year trophy drought.
