Arsenal have officially announced the signing of Lukas Podolski on the ubiquitous long-term contract/undisclosed fee combo, and Arsene Wenger is clearly very happy to have captured an experienced international striker.
Although Park and Chamakh are experienced international strikers themselves, they have struggled to make any impact this season, leaving Robin van Persie carrying the goalscoring burden alone. Podolski provides the manager with an alternative and Wenger has been quick to sing his praises (as you do with any new signing, in fairness).
“We are delighted to secure the deal for Lukas and see him as an important part of our future,” he said. “He is a top-class player, a very good finisher and a proven performer at club and international level. He is a very strong player and will provide us with good attacking options.
“We are happy to have made this signing early and we are looking forward to watching Lukas contribute at the European Championships over the summer, a level where he has already made 95 caps at the age of 26. That is a phenomenal record and just shows his quality as a player.”
Meanwhile, Podolski says of the move which surprises nobody but which we’re glad to see happen, “I am so happy to be joining Arsenal Football Club and to play in the Premier League. Arsenal is one of the top clubs in Europe with a huge history.
“There are many top quality players at Arsenal and the style of football which the team plays is fantastic. I’m proud to become an Arsenal player and am looking forward to playing my first match at Emirates Stadium and doing my best for all the Arsenal fans.”
And judging by the picture, if all goes well this summer Podolski and van Persie can have a Troll Face-athon when scoring goals. Watch out Tim Krul.
lu lu lu lukas podolski…
I may be slapped silly in the face by making this comment, but how does one aquire a signing when not in a transfer window?
‘Can’t tell if stupid question, or still drunk’
The contract is signed, the fee agreed and medical complete but you can’t get the transfer papers signed by the FA/UEFA (can’t ever remember which when it comes to international transfers) until the window is open. As soon as it opens, the player would be able to transfer in a matter of hours. Most players aren’t signed randomly during the season as there is a chance it will disrupt theirs and your teams season. Podolski hadn’t finished, hence why they kept it unconfirmed but now FC Koln have basically got their position, it’s safe to release this story. Hope that… Read more »
Pascal this is the answer i was looking for, i wonder how much he was bought for? I’ve heard the sum of £10million bandied around….hmmnn
Figures will be thrown around but you can find out officially around 1st of April 2013 as the accounts will be filed then (or should be as this is the general financial year end).
They’ll list all transactions as they have to, lthough they may put things in different places to lower their VAT bill….
Finally! It’s about time they announced something that we all knew for weeks.
First step in the right direction for next season. Hoping to add a few more top class names instead of diamonds in the rough.
COYG 2 games left & 6 points to walk away. 2 hat tricks from RVP to close out the season and on to a new contract.
I still want a few diamonds in the rough :), Matias Suarez would be awesome
if diamonds in the rough are your eduardos and sagnas then I’ll take them any day! Anyone hazard a guess as to what this means for our formation?
Probably stay 4-3-3 with the wide frontmen switching flanks to allow more cutting in and overlapping full backs to stretch defences
I see what you did there 😉
I think this won’t change our tactics. Podolski will be fighting with Gervinho/Ox/Walcott for the two wide places but the huge advantage that this signing brings is that Lukas will also be able to effectively compete with Robin for the striker role. So this is a two in one deal, we get a second striker who doesn’t have to stay on the bench all season even if van Persie stays fit (knock on wood).
He pulls a good troll face. Has he just scored cheeky goal? *U mad?
Problem, goalkeeper?
Eugh. Can’t unsee it!
haha good spot!
Arsenal showing intent. I’m extremely happy about this. Now secure RvP….
Yeeeeeeaaaaaah buddy!! Great signing. Kagawa next please Arsene
if we got kagawa we would have pretty much all of japans best players, honda aside.
GOL DI POLDI HALLELUJAH!
GOL DI POLDI HALLELUJAH!
GOL DI POLDI HALLELUJAH!
Christ this feels different, where will I get my summer of angst and knee hugging now. Great signing, hopefully the first of many.
It’s a really weird feeling going into a summer period without a sense of dread and despair. Hell I’ll take this any day though
Great news!
proven quality signing without breaking the bank- more of this please!
Excellent signing! Can’t wait to see him in an Arsenal shirt.
put him in your fifa 12 team then 🙂
Too many left-footed players
Wow. What a comment!
Actually the statistics stack up well for left footed players as they are generally better in their positions. Techinque is better and they are harder to get on to their weaker foot. They are also harder to go past around the outside as it leads to their stronger leg. You’d have to cut into their weaker side but would have more players in that area to get past. Think going past Vermaelen and running into Koscielny There are also far fewer left footed players compared to right, so it all just adds up to a better team. You actually find… Read more »
cant tell if retarded or just trolling
Why can’t he be both?
Idiot!
*sarcasm font*
Most people use a winking face – 😉 to portray sarcasm. Obviously you could also come across as a bit risque/sleazy but i guess you have to take that chance
Send you list of complaints to;
Mr Kee Pit Toyourself
65 whitehart lane
erm “too many left footed players”??????
does that mean you could never fit likes of Di Stefano, Puskas, Cruyff (not jordi), robbie carlos, Raul, Ozil, oh and one Diego Maradona (albeit right handed!!)
I’m sure i’m forgetting someone…………oh yeah di maria, nah bollix to him who else………………………………………..
Fuck yeah one Lionel Messi.
TROLL FACE
Even if Van Persie leaves,it shows we have learned from last summer’s shambles and are working early.Hope there are more deals in the pipeline.
Prepare for trouble…
Make it double…
Team Arsenal, that’s right!
meow
Lets just hope it doesn’t end with: “Looks like Team Arsenal are blasting off again!”
I hope this signing might push the players, especially the forward, in the last two games. Because usually a new signing can make a buzz in the team.
“And judging by the picture, if all goes well this summer Podolski and van Persie can have a Troll Face-athon when scoring goals. Watch out Tim Krul.”- heh! Brilliant!
Looking forward to seeing Podolski play alongside Van Persie 😀
Btw does anyone know why Arsenal always do the long term contract on a disclosed fee statement? I can’t think of any other club which does that, what’s the point?
I guess it’s so people don’t either realise how rich or poor the club is. We often hear Arsene and the board talking about the economic situation so I guess maybe they see publishing information of the giant sums of money paid as a bit vulgar.
Just guessing. No idea on the long term thing. I usually assume that means 5 years though.
But it’s not like we don’t have a clue. We know it’s something around 10m pounds. We know Arshavin was 12-15m. AOC was something like 12+3 or 7+3.
And in any case, clubs have accounts. Clubs can easily take an educated guess as to how much money we have.
I really think it’s weird. I can’t make any sense out of it. Liverpool were perfectly happy to say that they spent 35m on Andy Carroll.
yes. but Liverpool have no class.
They had also just got 50m from Torres and wanted to come across as shrewd, to get a young up and coming english striker for less than they just sold an older off-form striker.
If clubs knew how much we were spending, suddenly their demands would go up. Showing your accounts at the year end, wouldn’t affect this perception in future windows as your budget would have been decided earlier but the club would still want a healthy balance sheet.
Brilliant news!
Great to have a quality second striker. Welcome to Arsenal Lukas.
did i just hear second striker? or competing striker? van persie now has someone to compete with him.
Podolski can play as a second striker. He will compete with van Persie, but I’m fairly sure they can play side by side without compromising formation/creation/width. As a matter of fact I’m hoping this will give us more attacking options on the left.
awesome……… simply AWSOME!! cant wait to see him in ye ol Red n white!!
Rumour has it we narrowly beat Stoke City to his signature as Poldi had always wanted to play for a top class manager like Pulis and live in a town where the entire populace is directly related.
quick,left-footed,dead ball specialist,german,proven at International level….few of the many reasons for evey Arsenal fan to be excited by the latest signing!
Great signing to finally have confirmed.
My only fear is he will slow the development of Park and Chamakh who were really beginning to show some promise 😉
Looks like we will never really know how good Park is/was. Stupid to make fun of him considering he’s only played a few games, though.
Not making fun of him. Has to be the most pointless piece of transfer business in recent memory and it’s safe to say his career at Arsenal is over before it ever really got started.
Bit harsh on Park though – he was bought for RVP’s customary injury, which never happened. Most other seasons we would have seen much more of him. After that ridiculous stint with AA up front, Wenger decided to buy cover and for once it wasn’t needed.
Lu lu lu….lukas Podolski….would try learning the rest of the song during the summer….great news
Lukas who? I’m the best striker in the world !
Niclas… I told you to get off the computer and do your chores or no pizza for you!
And stay away from my car you little shit.
yeah but your leaving for Barca
The ecuardorian team Barcelona Sporting Club?
Ecuadorian* I apparently can’t spell
Don’t worry CRF, “Niclas” can’t spell his own name properly…… ;-P
Meeaow…
But seemingly not the best speller in the world… Nicklas. 😉
but is he top top class like park
hahaha i kid i kid
PODOLSKI BANG!!
This and ‘Arry’s snubbing for the England job has put me in a cracker of a mood…
Time to reclaim all the lost glory.
I guess everyone finally realized he’s a shite manager with a fluke of a fist half of this season. Put me in a great mood as well. THink the FA wanted someone who could read the contract before signing it?
I don’t think his dog was available to read the small print for him….
I reckon they secretly asked ‘Arry and he bottled and turned it down.
Hence Sp*rs result yesterday, even if it was against Blackburn.
I’ve just figured it out. ”Arry turned down the England job because he’s sure Barcelona will come calling!
Nice work Mertesacker. Now if you could please convince Gotze to join The Arsenal too!
or ozil i would really like ozil
Ozil would be a dream come true. Top class player who would improve Arsenal immensely!
Canny bit of business bringing Mertesacker to the club. Not sure if he’ll be able to dislodge Vermaelen and Koscielny as the preferred back two when he comes back from injury (mainly because of the skill of those two, not because Mertesacker isn’t up to the task) – but if not, we could employ him full time as our chief transfer negotiator and jettison Dick Law in the process.
either of the two Fats got anything to say?
no?
didn’t think so.
sorry.
Wenger’s nose is too big! And why is he so tall? Also, why does he have to wear that Michelin man coat on the sideline? My objections are valid! valid, I tells ya!
Best news since twitchy’o’arry’s snub and nice job from bfg, now help convince Goetze that Arsenal is the team
Us asking for Gotze is just like another team asking for Wilshere. Not gonna happen.
Nothing to critisize here so i’m gonna go right ahead and jump on the bandwagon……picture this “and he drags it to his left foot, bang!, top corner——–1-0 to the arsenal”……….but what wilshere said on twitter really sums it up. Am suddenly excited for next season.
What’d Wilshere say? (I don’t really have a twitter, so I’d appreciate the info)
Wilsheres’ twitter update: “podolski…….great signing! top player! To have that many appearances for Germany you have to be half decent!.”……………your welcome camilla.
I gave you a thumb up just for your name
About time what a great signing come on RVP pen it up son you know you want tooooooooooo !!!!
Thats made my Monday 🙂
That is indeed the question. Will this make RvP sign up. It’s not like this hasn’t been in RvP’s mind fro the last few weeks since he has known longer than we have, probably. RvP still looks up for it, as much as he is a professional, if he was thinking of leaving he may well have been less enthusiastic at Stoke, it’s not like he has to try hard to get picked for the Dutch squad this year. Signing Podolski will have pretty much been the clincher for RvP as much as having had his best season for years.… Read more »
I do hope thats the case as we have a chance to push on here !!!
they scoooooore when they waaaaaaant, lukas van persie, they score when they want!!!!!
Not just brillant news but the amazing characters we re having now.VP,Sz,Vermination,Boss,Sagna…The list continues,trophies re surely around the corner
36 shots on goal, 18 goals this season.
Very efficient!
That’ll be the old Vorsprung durch Technik y’know.
He takes 2 shots to score?! That’s not good enough. Right Arsene, back to the transfer market
This is where i use wayne and drakes’ new track to express what i’m feeling ryt now………………hell yeah! Hell yeah! Hell yeah!.
welcome home lukas… wir haben schon lange fur dich gewartet.
more please wenger….
yeh, what he said.
“We have long for you with lubricated” – Apparently google translate isn’t even sure what that means….
” wir haben schon lange fur dich gewartet. ”
Ja, goonerbegood, das ist ganz bestimmt !
what the fu*k is that suppose to mean?
“Wir haben schon lange fur dich gewartet” = We have been waiting for you
99 red baloons!!!!!! ya ya
To be pedantic, that should be “auf” rather than “für”. Agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment, though. 😉
Great signing me thinks, he doesn’t really look the sort to get pushed off the ball either which is important in the prem.
When we get the danish fella with the pink boots back, the strike force seems a lot more rounded all of a sudden. VP, lukas and the Dashing Dane.
World beaters I tells yer, well maybe not Nic, but not a bad back up all the same.
Do you mean we’re actually signing Jon Dahl Tomasson…. Good lord, that would be a strike force
Actual New Signing… ANS!
We picked up Poldi for £11m. Imagine if Nicky B has a good Euros and we can sell him for £10m? I’ll be laughing ecstatically.
we could sell bendtner to liverpoop, they’d probably pay like 30 or 40m. for him
Ha, he’d fit in perfectly with Carroll and the rest of the troll patrol.
And for everyone who thought it might be a good idea to go without European football next season so we can reorganize and regroup, this is the type of signing you can only make as a CL club.
Great news! Now is time to let Park and co go. The best players coming to Arsenal. The future is Arsenal. In Arsene we trust
Definitely good news, just need to make sure we make CL football next season and Theo and Robin stay. All of that will pretty much be sorted by mid-May, so that’s when I’ll crack open the beers and celebrate.
Really like that Wenger is looking to the German Bundesliga for players now. Its a good and improving league with many quality players. Arsenal has overlooked them for too long.
Cygan’s Right foot; are you a comments official or something (genuine question!)?
No, why?
I have an active interest in all sides of football, as i want to secure future coaching badges. Need to learn it all if i’m going to be economically sound to take over from Arsene 😉
Top quality and done before deadline day, now for one or two more and well be in the running next season
Now all we need is VERTONGHEN! COME ON!
Podolski’s goals 1st half of the season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQcCLydNqAQ
My nipples are still tingling after watching that.
Well that video has got me excited!
lukas van gotze!!! they score when they want!!!
you just made my day!!!
My two of the fav 3 germans now playing for my beloved club.
Maybe next year the third one joins us too.
Mario gotze if you are wondering. He is just the Arshavin we never had.
I’ve been having a pretty shit week, but Guardiola leaving Barca, ‘Arry getting snubbed for the England job, and now the Podolski deal becoming official… hard to stay gloomy when things like these happen.
Now I’m only waiting for Pat Rice to either extend his contract 😀
The transfer had to be announced now, to tell RvP, look we are serious about winning trophies and are making progress.
Now just secure third, I have a sneaky feeling Chelsea are gonna sneak past Bayern and which will make 4th place redundant. Two wins and RvP signs.
Two wins and I think vp will sign
I find it amazing that Polodski wasnt a major club years ago he always looked a serious player in front of goal for both club and country.
If Rvp stays we have just added a serious threat to other teams upfront.
Hopefuly this is the season we loosen the purse strings a little and strengthen the squad we could be going places next season if that happens.
Great signing.
i know you probably already knew this, but “Wasn’t at a major club” is a bit incorrect. He never really performed for Bayern (you know, that small club from Munich that is playing in the Champs League final) but with that said, Arsenal is far more suitable to his style of play and he has long relished the chance to play in England. I really hope he provides the difference between … well… third or fourth place to maybe finally raising that increasingly elusive premier league title.