L’Equipe: Giroud to stay at Chelsea despite Spurs interest

Breaking news from France this afternoon regarding Tottenham’s quest for a striker in the January transfer window. According to L’Equipe, Chelsea is no longer willing to let Olivier Giroud depart the club in this window, which means not only is he not going to Tottenham, he’s not going anywhere.

It’s a blow to Spurs’ attempts to land a player adept at holding up the ball, and since David Ornstein had already suggested that Giroud was the last option barring any van der Vaart-level surprises, it sure looks as though Tottenham will have to make do without a natural #9 in the side until Harry Kane returns from injury.

What does that mean? Well, the addition of Steven Bergwijn probably helps quite a bit as Son Heung-Min can move into a more central position. Sonny isn’t a guy who you can lump balls at like, say, Fernando Llorente, but it will give Spurs some flexibility in how they play, even if they are playing more of a false 9 than true 9.

The decision to let Giroud rot on the bench at Stamford Bridge rather than let him go is a bit baffling, especially since apparently Lazio were also interested in taking him, but I suppose it makes sense if their “last ditch” effort to sign Dries Mertens went up in smoke.

That means Chelsea now have two strikers they own and aren’t playing — Giroud and Michy Batshuayi — and they still aren’t sharing. Whatever, man. I hope they step on all the rakes.