Where there’s smoke: Giroud + €60M = Higuain?

Well, this sure is a thing. Fresh off his great performance at the Euros, as expected, people are coming out of the woodwork with offers for and interest in Olivier Giroud, some credible, some not.

I’m still not sure whether to file this under “credible” or “GTFO” at this point, but this is a thing that came to light today:

And to add some salt to the broth, the generally reliable Gianluca Di Marzio reports basically the same thing, albeit without a price tag, only saying that Giroud would “lower the price” of Gonzalo Higuain.

So, massive grain of salt time: I know nothing about the credibility of Gazetta dello Sport when it comes to stuff like this, and all I know about Gianluca di Marzio is that he seems to be fairly reliable when it comes to intra-Italian club business; this could also be a case of someone in England feeding di Marzio something in order to create leverage. I don’t really know, and because I don’t know, I’m not going to vouch for the credibility of this one way or the other. But, it’s a thing, so.

I also don’t really know how I feel about swapping Olivier Giroud for Gonzalo Higuain - I don’t follow him closely enough to know if he’s still one of the best players in the world, or a clear enough upgrade on Giroud to be worth not only Giroud but also €60 million. That’s a big, big price to pay. If he is, that’s great - but for me, I’d rather add to a strike force that includes Giroud than remove him entirely from the equation.