Crystal Palace want to sign Olivier Giroud from Premier League and London rivals Chelsea in the January transfer window.
Inter Milan face missing out on Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud due to his £130,000-a-week wages, according to Gazzetta dello Sport – which hands Crystal Palace a major boost in their hope of bringing a top class centre-forward to Selhurst Park in the January transfer window.
Just a matter of months after raising the World Cup trophy to the Moscow night sky, Giroud finds himself well down the pecking order at Stamford Bridge. Tammy Abraham and Michy Batshuayi are firmly established as Chelsea’s first choice centre-forwards under Frank Lampard with the veteran Frenchman starting just one Premier League game in 2019/20.
With his contract expiring next summer and the European Championships looming large, the time feels right for a fresh start and London rivals Crystal Palace are more than willing to offer Giroud an escape route in the winter (The Sun, 22 October, page 62).
According to reports in Italy, Antonio Conte is rivalling Hodgson for the 33-year-old’s signature, having brought Giroud to Stamford Bridge from Arsenal in January 2018.
Giroud is currently taking home £130,000-a-week at Chelsea, a pay packet that Conte’s Inter would apparently struggle to finance. Furthermore, the Serie A title-challengers only want to offer him an 18-month deal while the striker wants a contract until 2022.
The door has swung open, then, for Palace to sign a player who would surely stroll into Hodgson’s starting XI and give them the sort of top-level quality they have been crying out for ever since Christian Benteke’s career fell apart.
Interestingly, no one in Palace’s squad takes home more than £130,000-a-week, according to Sportrac, meaning Giroud would become their joint-highest paid player along with Wilfried Zaha.
And if the technically-gifted targetman wants to get more minutes under his belt, joining a side who already have Romelu Lukaku and Lautaro Martinez in their star-studded ranks wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense.
The Express claimed earlier in November that Chelsea would be tempted to cash in on Giroud for just £5 million.
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