Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud to decide future after start of season amid Everton interest

Arsenal forward and mooted Everton target Olivier Giroud will wait until the start of the Premier League season in order to decide whether he needs to leave the Emirates Stadium for pastures new this summer.

Giroud's future was plunged into doubt earlier this summer when Arsene Wenger's men completed the £52m signing of Alexandre Lacazette from Lyon. The 26-year-old has had to make do with a fringe role for France due to the presence of Giroud, but the arrival of Lacazette has pushed his national teammate down the pecking order in north London.

Despite the presence of Lacazette, a report from L'Equipe, relayed by the Liverpool Echo, claims that Giroud is prepared to stay at Arsenal for the embryonic stages of the new season in order to see where the land lies. If the former Montpellier hitman does not like the situation presented before him, he may see fit to find another club.

Everton manager Ronald Koeman has made no secret of his desire to bolster his strikeforce this summer, and on Wednesday (26 July) he revealed there was one particular striker that he would like to bring to Goodison Park.

Everton have been heavily linked with a £20m move for Giroud in recent weeks and are also reportedly tracking Roma forward Edin Dzeko and Crystal Palace striker Christian Benteke, who briefly played for local rivals Liverpool.

Koeman expressed his confidence over the Toffees' chances of signing a new striker before the end of the transfer window after his side's Europa League win over Ruzemborok, and the former Southampton boss also touched upon Everton's pursuit of Swansea City talisman Gylfi Sigurdsson. He seemed to put pressure on the Blues hierarchy to come up with a third bid for the Iceland international, who is valued at £50m by Paul Clement's side.

Due to the standing and obvious quality of Giroud, who has scored almost a century of goals for Arsenal since joining from Montpellier in the summer of 2012, he has also attracted interest from Marseille, West Ham United and Borussia Dortmund this summer, but the engrossment from the aforementioned trio of clubs has dried up for a variety of reasons.