Olivier Giroud’s agent has rubbished claims that his client will be used as part of the deal to land Gonzalo Higuain and has insisted the Frenchman is going nowhere making an awful lot of ‘reporters’ look very foolish indeed.

One of the biggest giveaways that a transfer story is a load of nonsense is when it includes a player ‘swap’ deal.

These things almost never happen and for good reason. It’s hard enough to have three parties agree to a transfer (buying club, selling club and player) without complicating it by needing three more agreements to take place before a deal can go ahead.

Occasionally, such as with the Ashley Cole/William Gallas deal, players are included but they are far rarer than the press would have you believe.

It was, therefore, no surprise to anyone at Daily Cannon when Giroud’s agent, Michael Manuello, said, “Everything I’ve read on Giroud is not true. I personally have only said that if Arsenal want to sell, then we will see.

“But today [he] is an Arsenal player and [not] even for a minute [have] we thought of another project, I would like to stress.

“We never talked to Naples and there are no other persons appointed over me that can do this, we need to clarify this.”

Despite what many would have you believe, Arsenal have no desire to sell Giroud.