Arsene Wenger has confirmed that the Gunners are close to tying down Aaron Ramsey and Santi Cazorla to new long-term contracts.
Following in the footsteps of Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky, who both had deals confirmed last week, the two midfielders are being rewarded for their contribution at the Emirates in the last 18 months.
While the deals have yet to be signed off, Arsene Wenger was happy to go public on the negotiations in today’s press conference.
“Not yet,” he said when asked if the deals are done. “We are very close. Very close. We will announce as soon as we are over the line.”
The latest round of contract renewals mean that most of the squad have committed their long-term future to the club. Bacary Sagna, Lukasz Fabianski and Nicklas Bendtner and loanees Viviano and Kallstrom aside, all first team members are covered until the end of next season.
One player whose future appears open to discussion, despite being under contract until 2016, is Lukas Podolski. His agent is this morning quoted playing up interest from Serie A giants Inter Milan stating:
“Serie A is always a League at a high level and Inter are an interesting club that wants to invest, as we have seen recently with Vidic,” Nassim Touihri told Calciomercato.com.
“But at the moment, we do not know what will happen in the future. Lukas is a universal striker, he can play multiple roles. He has played and will play as a prima punta, a seconda punta and a winger.
“Has anyone from Inter called me? I cannot answer this question, but I repeat that Lukas has a contract with the Gunners until 2016 and is very happy.”
I feel that Podolski is exactly the kind of quality squad player we need available, whether or not he’ll be interested in playing the fringes is another matter. Looks like our squad’s going to need more additions at the end of the season than originally thought…
a left foot like that deserves first team football
The problem is that he’s either scoring or fading out completely..
On the subject of new additions in the summer. Apparently we’re interested in signing Southampton defender/midfielder Calum Chambers.
I don’t know much about him personally but a friend of mine says he is the nuts.
Hate to be the guy to say this because I love Poldi too, but not too many squad players outside City/Chelsea rake in 100 grand a week. Wouldn’t be surprised to see him go in summer. If he’s not in the first team, surely he’s on his way out. Just like Verm – too good not to play.
I’m fairly sure he is one of the top paid players with us despite his lack of first-team football.
just look at who is getting offered contract extentions to see which players are definitely in wenger’s plans. santi, per, rosicky, koscielny, ramsey, wilshere, jenks, etc all have signed (or will sign very soon) their extentions. as far as I’ve heard (and please correct me if I’m wrong), Podolski has not been offered an extention on his current deal. I think we’ll keep him around next season, but start to play gnabry or a new signing at LW much more often.
I personally, feel that podolski should stay.he is a lethal striking force.
But unfortunately Wenger doesn’t seem to have a role for him..
Its frustrating when a fan favorite is not in the managers’ plans…
esp when you see how the boss persists with other players in the past who had a fraction of the application and passion poldi brings
He typically does well and scores very efficiently (apart maybe from one or two games that he played as a lone striker)
His attitude has been fantastic.
Until he gets on the pitch, then its pretty dire.
Poldi is sure a talented player, but i really don’t like him on 1rst team : -he can’t play CF, too bad fo us. -Winger is supposedly his best position, but he doen’t do all the jobs that this position requires : he does the defensive job alrgight (sometimes), but offensively he doesn’t make ANY runs behind the defenders, the ones that ozil, cazorla, wilshere will spot; the ones that walcott or gnabry makes . He prefers to actually touch the ball rather than make the run, therefore go back and play Center Midfielder ( analyse our recent few games… Read more »
I don’t agree. Last season he was making plenty of useful runs and was playing like a good winger. He delivered a number of beautiful crosses from the wing position and scored a few making the outside-in runs. This season is different though. He seems to have lost the sense of position due to intermittent juggles in his role as a winger and a center forward.
Of course i exagerate when I say “any runs”, it’s because i’m pissed.
agreed that last season,he made some runs,that’s why it’s annoying to see his preformances drop in this one. But he only played 1 or 2 games as Center Forward, didn’t he ?
It’s hard though to find a suitable explanation for this,and it makes it even more annoying.
cue obligatory sagna contract queries
apparently he’s demanding 100k a week…
on an unrelated note, what’s the latest on sagna’s contract?
get your dirty hands off our poldi
Who heard that German interviewee call mertersacker a big f*c*ing German on sky sports news today. Lmao
Poldi is the new Eboue. Fan favourite, but we could probably do better in that position.
That’s not a great comparison, although I do see what you are saying.
Eboue was at one point as far away from being a fan favourite and it was only by his graft he redeemed himself to some extent.
Poldi has not lost the goodwill of the fans by any means and it is unlikely that he will.
As far as my memory goes, Eboue was not a fan favorite till his culminating season with the club. He was the fan’s favorite to get a stinger though. I remember hoards of people criticizing wenger for sticking with him.
I can’t help but feel that Podolski is suffering from what Arsene said a couple of weeks ago about there being no time to train. At the start of the season it looked like he was going to crack on, then he got injured and hasn’t been able to reintegrate into how the team plays.
John Terry is a prima punta
John Terry is a kinta Cunta
full cunt, i think
Its really telling to me how much Arsene, Bould and the rest of the Arsenal staff must value Rambo if they are negotiating a new deal with him less than 18 months after he re-signed – never mind he’ll be bumped up to our second highest valued player at the age of 23. Good stuff.
Terry is a prima puta, you mean.
Universal Striker?
Wasn’t that a Dolph Lundgren movie?
Surely podolski should be our super sub , last 30 mins of each game throw him on to unleash the left foot !
and now for some random observations:
Gervinho is having a better season than Podolski. His frustrating, but penetrating runs from the left would have connected nicely with Giroud this year. Can Gnabry play on the left or would he want to cut in on his right too often? I like Carzola in the middle, not on the wing. The Ox should be inserted into Jack’s position in CM this weekend.
COYG!!! Lick those Toffees!!!
ummm “lick those toffees”??? no thanks
but aside from that I agree 100%
Letting Lukas go would be a huge mistake. We need players like him that can finish chances, and I’ve always been a big fan of his crossing from the left flank.
Podolski may be a great footballer, but it’s hard to say it’s really working out for him at AFC. Huge left foot, some extremely nice goals, but too often plays like he’s carrying a piano on his back. I want it to work out, great attitude and impossible not to love, but at this point it seems like moving on after this season would be in his and AFC’s best interest.