Paris (AFP) – Marseille boss Rudi Garcia admitted Wednesday that Olivier Giroud would be the perfect goal scorer for the French club but believes the Arsenal striker has his sights on a bigger challenge.
“I think that he doesn’t want to come to Marseille,” Garcia tells sports daily L’Equipe in an interview to be published Thursday.
Giroud has the “right profile”, but Garcia admits that the French international “may have other interests than Marseille”.
Giroud, 30, has been linked with a move away from Arsenal following the record signing of fellow French striker Alexandre Lacazette. Last season, he was restricted to just 17 starts for the Londoners.
“Giroud is a French international, he’s playing at Arsenal and he’s eventually going to change clubs…this shows that we still have barriers to cross to be completely attractive,” added Garcia.
“Today, to have top players, we are a little short. We don’t want people to dream and think that we are going to take a top player.”
Garcia’s fears echoed those of Marseille president Jacques-Henri Eyraud who said in July the club were unable to compete with the “crazy prices” being paid for players during the summer transfer window.
Marseille, who started their Ligue 1 season last weekend with a 3-0 home win over Dijon, signed four players for the new season — defender Adil Rami, goalkeeper Steve Mandanda, midfielder Luiz Gustavo and striker Valere Germain.
