By Walter Broeckx
Hurray hurray huuuuuurrayyyyy Wayne Rooney has scored 200 PL goals. This has been a bit of a theme in the media after Rooney scoring a goal against Manchester City on Monday evening.
Now of course scoring 200 PL goals is an amazing achievement. And as I have played against a very young Wayne Rooney while being on holiday in Spain some 17 years ago (if I had known he would become a real PL superstar I would have taken some pictures – something I now regret a bit to be honest) I do admit I do have a very small (but really, really small) soft spot for him.
With the whole Rooney clan being there we had lots of fun when the football tournaments were played in that holiday period. We even could beat the Rooney clan with our Belgium team of old legs, two sets of younger legs belonging to my kids, and one pair of French legs of a really talented French footballer who played in the Toulouse youth academy and who also was amazing to see. But curiously I never heard of him after that. But I did hear of, and have seen more than I liked at times, of Rooney.
When I heard about Rooney scoring 200 PL goals at first I was a bit impressed. Yes, it isn’t given to all football players to achieve that. So he deserves to be congratulated. Yes, he is a good player and has done very well in one of the best teams in the PL. I sure wished that Wenger would have been able to bring him to the Emirates instead of him going to Manchester. I admit he was one of my secret must-buy players over the last 10 years or so.
By now you might be wondering about me writing this on an Arsenal blog. More suitable for a Manchester United blog or even an Everton blog?
But let me get to my point. While MU had Rooney, the world class striker, we had to do with Giroud. The… well fill in as you like but some have called him all sorts of names. Useless maybe being one of the kindest….
Now by some strange chance Giroud has reached the 70 PL goals mark a week ago. Boooh you see his haters will say. Rooney 200PL goals and Giroud only 70 PL goals. That big French bloke: rubbish. Nah you see it.
Of course Untold has always had a soft spot for Giroud. And we have defended him in the past. Yes he has some things that could have been better. He could have been faster. But he is a different type of player because of the build he has. But both play as striker in their teams.
Now the thing is if you look at the 200 vs 70 goals you can only come to the conclusion that Rooney was by far the better player. But if we look at it closer we can see that in his 15 years so far in the PL Rooney has scored 200 PL goals and that is an average of 13.33333 goals per season.
If we do the same for Giroud in his five years so far in the PL we have 70 PL goals and that is an average of…. 14 goals per season.
Yet Rooney is seen as one of the greats of the PL and Giroud is being ridiculed and called names and said he is no good….
Strange how things can look very different when you go past the first number that has been said.
Now scoring an average of 13 PL goals a season is not bad of course, au contraire as Giroud would say. But yet we have a player who scores 1 goal more on average and yet some part of the fans call him rubbish, deadwood, no good, not good enough….
After having looked at those stats I must say that I want to congratulate Rooney with his achievement. And would like to feel happy that we have Giroud as one of our strikers. Maybe Wenger could play him a bit more from next weekend? After all his scoring record sure is comparable with one of the greats of the PL…
And to those people who know anything about it…. Giroud is surely better looking that Rooney.
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Some might say that the comparison is a little misleading because Rooney has played much of his career behind the main striker or even (under van Gaal) in midfield, but I agree with you that Giroud is a really good (and probably underrated) player. If anything, he has improved during his time at Arsenal, and there is much to like about him – a great link player for the team, very strong, never hides, with genuinely good technical skill and control of the ball (better than Welbeck if we are honest), and he can score and lay off chances for other players. Only drawback is his lack of pace, but like Sheringham he makes up for this in other ways. I think it is vital that we hold on to him because he is the only player of his type in the squad; time and again his value has been demonstrated. Look at the two games so far in the PL this season: came off the bench to grab the winner in the first one, and set up a great chance for Welbeck with his first touch in the second one.
Giroud is one short of 100 goals for ARESNAL. It would’ve been great, if it was against stoke. BUT even better, against Liverpool.
Come of Giroud for 100.
Family Enclosure Man
You could also point out in comparison that Giroud sat on the bench most of last season only coming on near the end of most games and often not at all, so maybe goals scored per minutes played would give a better indication.
I’m not sure about your stats here, but going by the ones on Wikipedia I find that Rooney has played 641 PL games & scored 272 goals for an average of 0.42 per game, while the handsome hunk has a slightly better 230/99 at 0.43 per game.
I’m open to correction of course.
Just one more for his century. Hope he gets to celebrate soon, he’s been good value.
Giroud is a class player, good finisher, team player, unselfish. Would love him at Everton where he would play every week. Maybe he needs a new challenge?
Putting Rooney back in England squad?
Thats a little silly though isnt it?
They do love their “heroes”. ❓
When did Giroud play in midfield? Get a grip lads!
Family Enclosure Man
Great comments. Agree with every word.
Peter Jinks
“Giroud is a class player, good finisher, team player, unselfish.”
Well said. If only some of our own fans would see him in that light.
“Would love him at Everton where he would play every week. Maybe he needs a new challenge?”
Nah, wouldn’t suit the Toffees at all. Far too good looking. You stick to
Ugly mug Rooney types. Much more suitable.
It takes an Everton fan to really put this in context
Thanks Peter Jinks!
For some Arsenal fans no matter what Giroud does, it aint good enough
The French National team must have no clue ?
The problem is that it isn’t Arsenal fans. These are anti-Arsenal fans. They are looking for problems with Arsenal.
@ Gord – 23/08/2017 at 4:10 am – There are NOT Arsenal fans . Never ever were and will never will be .
They are just ye old fashioned and garden variety arseholes !
I eagerly await their rebuttals !
You forgot to mention with less average plying time.
I’m glad to say that Giroud does get a lot of appreciation from the fans in the ground at matches – which he fully deserves.
And I assume all those who choose to slag off Giroud also think the team are crap because we haven’t won a single worthwhile (sic) trophy for over a decade! In which case Rooney must have had more opportunities because (according to nearly everyone) Man U are the best team in the world and we’re completely abysmal………..
This is more than a bit misleading, tbf.
Wayne Rooney has spent his entire career playing in the PL. These numbers cover his teenage years, his early 20s when he played mostly as a wing, and several seasons of his prime when he was asked to play a central midfield role.
Giroud’s numbers cover only the prime seasons of his career, where he played almost entirely as a center forward. His per season figures should be much better than those of Rooney.
Giroud is a fine player, certainly much better than he’s made out to be by the media. He’s probably even a better player than the current Wayne Rooney. Looking at his per season goal figures at Arsenal to conclude that he’s as good as Rooney is laughable, though. Context matters.
Scuba,
I don’t think the piece is trying to make that comparison, but is more a sophisticated sideswipe at those who continue to bury Olivier regardless of his accomplishments.
My top three Arsenal players of the PL era:
1/ Thierry Henry
2/ Dennis
3/ Olivier Giroud
There. I said it.
*correction*
Apologies, should have said ‘favourite’ three players. In a rush here.
I doubt he remembers meeting you somehow. Why the obsession with a non-Arsenal player?