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Saints Linked With Giroud

Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud broke Saints fans hearts on Saturday, but accoding to media reports he could be looking for a place in them in a few weeks time.

Olivier Giroud has scored 7 times for Arsenal in 22 appearances this season, indeed his late equaliser at St Mary's on Sunday was his 4th Premier League goal in 13 games, however he has yet to start a game in the Premier all season and he is said to be worried that this could cost him a place in France's squad for the 2018 World Cup Finals.

The Express are claiming that Saints are willing to smash the £18 million club transfer record paid out for Mario Lemina to bring the 31 year old to St Mary's and that the player would be open to a move.

Everton are also said to be interested, but the same report says that Giroud rejected a move to Goodison in the summer because he wants to remain in London and that Southampton is near enough to the capital to mean that he would be able to continue living in London and commute to training.

If Giroud was a year or two younger then I would think that this story could have some credence, however it is unlikely that Saints would spend £18 million on a player who is now 31 and would be unlikely to have any real sell on value.

This perhaps suggests that this story is being put about by someone close to the player perhaps his agent to fire some warning shots to Arsene Wenger about the lack of game time Giroud has been getting.

For this deal to happen Arsenal would need to slash their asking price drastically, however with 18 months left on his contract the Gunners may feel that they are happy to run that deal to its conclusion than sell him now unless its a big offer.

If it did happen then that would be a big statement of intent by Saints new major shareholder, but in truth this is just not the sort of deal we would normally be interested in.

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