Transfer Rumor: au revoir, Olivier Giroud?

In every transfer season, there are fun rumors and not-so-fun ones. Rumors linking Thomas Lemar to Arsenal last season? Fun! Rumors linking Francis Coquelin to not being at Arsenal any more? Fun! Rumors that Alexis wanted to leave? Not fun at all. Rumors bringing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in to London? Hella fun.

Let’s just go ahead and file this one in the not-at-all-fun category:

Even though it’s not an individual doing the reporting here, GFFN is generally a pretty reliable source, and wouldn’t run something like this without there being a pretty high degree of accuracy to it. This is...not ideal.

Why is this not ideal? Let me count the ways:

1. Chelsea are a top four rival
2. Olivier still has gas in the tank
3. I guess there’s a way to justify selling to a rival if you squint, but even if you do those gymnastics, £15 million is...very low. The Telegraph is reporting the asking price as £35 million, so....shrug? I don’t know if the “£15m plus bonuses” in GFFN’s tweet equates to a £15m fee plus £20m in bonuses, but that’s what’s out there.
4. I don’t think Olivier Giroud should leave
5. Why does Olivier Giroud have to leave
6. Please no

I mean, I get why he wants to; he’s been demoted from his starter role, he’ll be even further down the depth chart now that Auba’s in town, and Giroud will want to stay in World Cup consideration for France. But still, this sucks. Nobody’s bigger than the club, and everyone has a price, but I can’t help but feel like this is a mistake - Giroud settled into his super-sub role pretty well, and he was really good at it. But, if he wasn’t happy, I guess there’s no benefit to the club in keeping him around. I just hope that if this is true, the number Arsenal get is more on the 35 side than the 15.

UPDATE 2.20PM PT: Looks like Dortmund might be Giroud’s destination maybe, which doesn’t make his leaving easier, but does make it better.