Milan director Paolo Maldini has confirmed that Olivier Giroud will travel to Italy this week to complete his transfer from Chelsea. Though Giroud remains a popular figure at Stamford Bridge and enjoys a good goals-to-minutes ratio, he has fallen out of favour over the past year, particularly under the tenure of Thomas Tuchel. With Timo Werner, Kai Havertz and Tammy Abraham apparently ahead of him in the pecking order, and with Chelsea continually linked with a move for Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland, Giroud has opted to move on. A transfer to Milan was proposed in January only for the move to fall through, while Giroud surprisingly penned a contract extension with Chelsea to keep him in London for another year. However, that new contract hasn’t stopped him signing for Milan as the Rossoneri will pay Chelsea around €2 million for his services. Though no official announcement has been made yet, Maldini confirmed the deal was done. “Yes, Olivier Giroud should arrive tomorrow. Olivier is a champion, he’s done great things with France and Chelsea,” The Milan legend told DAZN. “He is a very reliable player and that’s what we are looking for, as we have the youngest squad in Serie A, so we need some with more experience.” There is a giant Zlatan Ibrahimovic-shaped hole set to be felt in the Milan team in the early part of the season as the big Swede has been missing with a knee injury suffered against Juventus at the back end of last season. Zlatan Ibrahimovic He was actually set to join Sweden at the European Championship before the injury ruled him out of contention. Though surgery could happen it is not confirmed yet which means a prognosis isn’t confirmed at the moment. Therefore, Giroud should receive plenty of playing time, at least until Ibrahimovic comes back. Giroud is 34 and Ibrahimovic is 39 so there is definitely the possibility that Stefano Piolo will rotate the pair as much as he can. It is unlikely the Frenchman would have accepted a move to Milan to play second fiddle to Ibrahimovic having not played as much as he would have liked at Chelsea over the past 12 months.
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Where will Giroud fit in at Milan?
