Enner Valencia, Davy Klaassen and now Olivier Giroud... Evertonians could be forgiven for watching some of the goals at this year’s World Cup fly in with a few wistful glances. While Valencia and Klaassen each got to spend a season at Goodison Park – the former on loan and the latter having arrived from Ajax before being sold to Werder Bremen – Giroud could hold the dubious honour as being one of the greatest signings Everton never made under Farhad Moshiri.
Giroud’s brace in the opening game of holders France’s defence of their crown, a 4-1 comeback win over Australia, saw him equal the legendary Thierry Henry’s record as his country’s all-time leading goalscorer. A tally of 51 goals in 115 internationals is obviously hugely-impressive, as was his 144 goals in 372 games for English clubs Arsenal and Chelsea, but while Giroud came close to joining Everton in 2017, they couldn’t get a deal over the line.
Ronald Koeman revealed after his sacking as Blues boss that just a few weeks earlier during the summer transfer window: “I had Olivier Giroud in the building.
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“He would have fitted perfectly but, at the very last moment, he decided that he'd rather live in London, and stay at Arsenal. That was really hard to swallow. You tell me, where you can get a better striker?”
There have been conflicting reasons cited for the centre-forward’s last-minute change of heart since then but none of them cushion the blow. Koeman’s replacement at Everton, Sam Allardyce, pointed the finger of blame at Madame Giroud (Jennifer).
When asked about reviving interest in the player in the January transfer window after taking charge of the Blues, Allardyce said: “I wouldn’t have thought so as he refused to come last time.
“As far as I know he doesn’t want to move north of Watford, well his wife doesn’t want to anyway.
“It’s very important to the wives, believe you me. Normally they are the bosses.”
It was a claim, however, denied by Giroud’s Arsenal manager and fellow Frenchman, Arsene Wenger, and four years later, ahead of the release of his autobiography Always Believe , the player himself declared that he’d decided against a switch to Merseyside because of the advice from one of his mother’s friends. Giroud explained how his Christian faith ‘guided him’ and noted the time ‘Nicole’ got in touch with him to explain prophetic dreams she had had, warning that a move to Everton ‘would not give the striker the satisfaction he sought.’
He said: “I believe in the story of Jesus in the Bible and that it is to bring us more humility. Suffering is a basic part of life.
“It builds your personality as a human being. That is where my mental strength comes from.
“I have always had to face difficulties, like everyone in life. Nothing is easy in life, you have to grab it and get out of your comfort zone.
“My faith helped me every single day, particularly when I had to make big decisions. For example, you can understand from my book why I didn’t go to Everton and why I stayed at Chelsea instead of signing for Inter.
“One thing I will tell you is God has got a plan for every single person on Earth. We make our path and the Lord sets the pace.”
Suffering is something that beleaguered Blues fans know all about themselves and their struggles in recent years might prompt them to fear that some higher power – beyond even Premier League referees and VAR – might be against them. But irrespective of Giroud’s religious beliefs, you can’t help but think that Everton could have done with his goals over the past five years. As much as Valencia looked sharp when netting a double himself in Ecuador’s 2-0 victory over Qatar in the World Cup’s opening game, he only scored one more than that in 23 games on loan at the Blues in 2016/17.
The South American might be his country’s all-time leading scorer in the tournament now and has been prolific for current club Fenerbahce over the past two and a half seasons, but that’s in the Turkish Super Lig, a division in which Cenk Tosun – the striker Allardyce signed for £27million as an alternative to Giroud in the next transfer window – also excelled in before largely toiling in the English top flight. Valencia also failed to hit double figures in either of his two full Premier League seasons at West Ham United prior to his arrival at Goodison Park.
However, if Valencia’s exploits in the tournament’s inaugural fixture were something of an eye-opener for Evertonians, imagine the shock of seeing Klaassen’s determined turn of pace to slam in a rebound and seal Netherlands’ 2-0 victory over Idrissa Gueye’s Senegal on Monday. While Gueye proved an instant hit at Goodison following his 2016 move from Aston Villa, providing just the kind of qualities needed to succeed in Everton’s midfield, Klaassen resembled a lost soul when arriving the following summer.
Although clearly gifted, as his inclusion in Louis van Gaal’s squad at the current World Cup finals testifies, Klaassen – one of three ‘number 10s’, alongside Wayne Rooney and record signing Gylfi Sigurdsson, brought in by the Blues in the same window that the club were trying to bag Giroud – the Dutchman looked like one of the most ill-suited players ever asked to inhabit the rough and tumble of the engine room for a Premier League side. Perhaps it all goes to show just how difficult it is to excel at the top of the English game and brings up the question as to what kind of level international football actually is, after all Giroud’s opposite number, spearheading the Socceroos’ attack Mitchell Duke – born in Liverpool, New South Wales – plies his trade with Fagiano Okayama in the Japanese second division.
Current Everton manager Frank Lampard spoke recently about how he thought through his own playing experiences, the latter stages of the Champions League are the sport’s highest level but he actually found international football harder. Given that he holds the record for the most shots (40) in a World Cup since 1966 without scoring, with his abiding memory in the tournament being a ‘ghost goal’ against Germany in 2010, which clearly went over the line but was not awarded, that’s perhaps no surprise.
At 36, Giroud would not now provide a long-term solution to an Everton side that has netted just 11 goals in 15 Premier League games so far this season – opposition defences in the division tend not to be as charitable as Western Sydney Wanderers – but had he signed for them five years ago, their recent history might have looked very different. His absence of course allowed the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin to develop in the Premier League but while France’s number nine is still banging them in for the boys in blue at the World Cup, the Sheffield-born player, his junior by over a decade but plagued by fitness issues over the past 15 months, missed out on the tournament as he went into the break nursing no fewer than three separate injuries.
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