Olivier Giroud has admitted he was on the brink of leaving Arsenal but opted to stay after deciding “the story was not over”.
Arsenal’s £52.7million capture of Alexandre Lacazette cast doubt over Giroud’s future at the club this summer with a host of clubs interested in signing the 30-year-old.
Lyon were originally keen on incorporating Giroud as part of the deal to sell Lacazette before pursuing him separately along with Marseille, Everton and West Ham with manager Arsene Wenger willing to sanction his departure in pursuit of regular first-team football.
Giroud was left to determine his fate, as the Frenchman explained. “Actually that’s a very private decision because it’s true that I was close to leave the club because I said that I wanted to play, but after a big reflection with everybody around me like my family and my close friends in a supportive way, I wanted to stay at Arsenal and I thought the story was not over,” he said.
“The club brings me a lot and I think I give it back. I still want to improve again and again and win some more trophies for the club, so as I said to the boss our story was not finished, so everybody was pleased with that.”
Giroud has scored 99 goals in all competitions but he set aside talk of achieving a personal milestone by focusing on Europa League glory with Arsenal. Their campaign begins tomorrow night against Cologne.
Official Arsenal Squad Photography 2017/18 - In pictures
“Obviously for a striker it’s always important to score, the statistics are very important, and I keep it in a part of my mind, but the most important for me is to win,” he said. After, the goals will come obviously if we play well and we play our game. We are very focused on this Europa League, we want to go and win it, we are very ambitious and I am looking forward to the game tomorrow.”
