Extremely close to leaving Chelsea in January, Olivier Giroud was promised by Frank Lampard he would get his chance during the second half of the campaign.
The Chelsea manager kept his word, and the French striker repaid his faith with eight goals in the next 13 league games, playing a key role in helping the Blues secure Champions League football.
This season has been a bit different for Giroud, however, with the expensive arrival of Timo Werner further blocking his path to the first-team, meaning he has only made one appearance in the Premier League so far in a 17 minute cameo against West Brom back in late September.
That hasn’t harmed his relationship with Lampard, which the player revealed became stronger following his near exit earlier this year when speaking to Onze Mondial.
He said: “He’s a manager who’s got some good ideas in the game. He communicates well too, in the sense that he knows what he wants to tell his players. The message goes through well. Now, of course, there’s a need for time to work, to integrate the new players.
“Either way, I have a good relationship with him, especially after we got to know each other during those three days before the end of the transfer window. I was in his office, we were trying to find a solution and I eventually stayed. I’m staying another year, and I have a good relationship with him”.
Asked if it was hard to go knocking on a door to ask for more game time, Giroud explained that, in his eyes, ‘the manager’s office should always be open when a player feels something isn’t right or has something to say’.
He feels honesty is key and there’s no point in keeping things to yourself, which is why he did what he did last January.
It worked in his favour then, although that hasn’t carried over into the new campaign, but the season is young and there’s a lot of football left to play.
