Thursday, March 28, 2024

Optimistic Podolski open to Arsenal stay

Lukas Podolski has said he’s open to staying at Arsenal next season and completing what would be the final year of his contract in North London.

After a fairly unsuccessful loan spell in Serie A, with just one goal for Inter Milan, speculation has mounted over his future with links to clubs in Turkey and a return to the Bundesliga.

However, the former Cologne and Bayern Munich man says he feels he still has something to offer the Gunners and would be happy to see out his deal in the 2015/16 season.

“They are a great club and I think I can help them,” he told BILD.

“Things can always change, but if needs be I will remain at Arsenal next season. There is no interest in Werder Bremen.

He also touched on what was a disappointing campaign for him, with fewer appearances than he’d have liked at Arsenal and the lack of goals in Italy.

“You can take experience from everywhere you play abroad, even if it was not my best year from a sporting perspective,” he said.

“But I still have many years ahead of me and a burning desire to play football.”

The German remains a popular character, but the suggestion that Arsenal would miss him after he went away on loan proved not to be the case as the team went on an excellent run of form.

If there’s a clamour for upgrades on what we’ve got this summer, then it seems likely the club will cash in on him to help finance those.

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AntiSpud

We love you Poldi. If only you could score 20 a season. OK only 19 and everybody will be happier

TommyR7

Or maybe just get involved…

AllGunsABlazin

Run araaaaand a bit

GoonerNelly86

Personally, I’m not expecting a big summer. Maybe I’m a little too optimistic but I don’t think we need any major upgrades. Someone to challenge Coquelin perhaps? In any case, I think there’s still room for Podolski at the Arsenal…. if he’s willing to work hard, be patient, and not publicly complain about sitting the bench for a spell.

Haydn

Personally think he burnt that bridge when he left

Trezy

Keep saying that while Chelsea strengthens even further and become much stronger. We need a gk, dm and striker if we’re really serious about winning the league. This team is not as perfect as some people want to believe.

WengersNoseHair

He probably remembers how popular he was and somehow has muddled that with how little Wenger clearly thought of him. I still remember Wenger getting booed for bringing on Sanogo for Poldi. Ah the good old days.

Getso gunner

The only thing you can offer the gunners is make sure they get couple of millions from you by going to another club next season

Miranda

Problem is, there may not be many takers. Werder Bremen and a couple of Turkish clubs recently decided against him, presumably because his last couple of seasons have been awful and his wages are huge. We could have another Bendtner situation on our hands (though thankfully for only one season as opposed to ten years), and for this we’ve no one to blame but ourselves. Wenger knew what sort of striker Podolski was; he’d watched him for years, so how could he have imagined a mature player would to turn into something quite different? The experiment never looked like working… Read more »

Trezy

100 percent spot on. The people thumbing this comment down are the “positive fans” who seem to have gotten used to the 4th place trophy. Petr Cech, a world class keeper is available and reportedly wants to come to us, yet some people don’t want us to get him because “it would hurt scz and ospina”. According to them we can win the league and ucl with giroud as our first choice striker and flamini and arteta as “back ups” to coq. They don’t want a wc DM to provide competition for coq and push him to get better. This… Read more »

Chris O.

He’s not been good enough for Arsenal for more than a year. We’re past the point he can offer something to us. He ought to play for a mid-tier PL club where he’d be a star for them, but he can’t seem to accept that, so he’ll probably bounce to another higher profile club where he’ll be mediocre too.

raron aamsey

hahano

Mpho

Poldi just admit your time is up mate at Arsenal! I would love to see you on that Arsenal shirt again but as things are I doubt!

Stewart Robson's therapist

Still hold him responsible for the Anderlecht equaliser at the Emirates. How can you, at 3-2 up with minutes to go, be jogging back? You can’t just watch the guy cross the ball, surely you have to put the burners on and go over and take him out? Just take the yellow card. But that’s indicative of the amount of effort he’s ever been prepared to put in. He can shoot, he can cross, but his off-the-ball movement is so poor that he’s rarely in a position to do either. And as I say, his defensive work rate leaves a… Read more »

Hank Scorpio

Ah the old doesn’t track back chestnut
Rewatch our early season games when we were kept conceding on the break. Poldi nowhere to be seen and all those other oh-so-accountable players consistently stranded upfield. He may be ‘limited’ but the most efficient finisher in the league would have been very useful in games like the 2nd leg against Monaco and any other games where we struggled with parked buses & also to give Alexis a rest.

Cornelius P. Snuffington III

I don’t think a lack of alternatives is the reason Alexis didn’t rest more this season.

Nacho de Montreal is tasty

With the comments he made in January that Wenger did not show him respect by not saying goodbye to him, he has no chance to be back.

Ex-Priest Tobin

I wish we hadn’t loaned him as it’s reduced his price. He’s overrated and we should’ve sold when the market was hot.

alx96

Actually, I think he was loaned out to put him in shopping window.

gooner1981

Personally, I’d be glad to see him go and free up wages, and a squad spot for someone else (or new). I don’t care if a player is entertaining on twitter/instagram or not. If someone is not good enough on the pitch, they are really of no use to Arsenal as a club.

Jimbo 1

He should be moved on to help finance paying for a top striker of the same calibre as Sanchez. Giroud is good, but not clinical or fast enough and Walcott and Welbeck are too inconsistent.

Springbank 1962

Weird thing is I truly want to see him play.

It doesn’t have to be with us.

Somewhere in the Bundesliga perhaps?

WengersNoseHair

Yeah, that is pretty kinky. You might want to see someone about that.

Unyoke the ox

Sounds a bit like he’s open to leaving on a free, so that he can go back to Fc koln and finish his career there.

Can’t blame him, but I also can’t see Wenger letting that happen.

Eva

As a German, I have so many feelings about Poldi (so this will be a bit of a lengthy rant, sorry about that). He’s one of the ones we first really saw in that very enjoyable 2006 World Cup – of course that was before we learned that we’d gotten it through Saudi-Arabian Arms deals, which I must say tarnishes the whole experience rather a lot. That year though, there was a certain lightness about the team as well as great skill, so much so that we didn’t mind the semi-final defeat at all. And while some of that was… Read more »

Master Bates

Well you listed all those players who are only good when they are not tired or injured , that’s why poldi doesn’t like running around

MACC

I do agree that Podolski has not matured as the rest. I still feel Wenger’s patience with the way he treats his players like Ramsey in the past and experience players likes of Arteta and Rosicky. He would have understood this from his brief spell at Inter, that no one really has the time to guide players anymore. I think he understands now that being a super sub would not be that much of a bad thing especially if you are in a team that is winning trophies, plays in the Champion league every year and with almost certainty if… Read more »

wellrsed

Unfortunately, Poldi’s time at Arsenal is over. What is problematic is that I think he’s passed his sell-by date too. We should probably have sold him last summer – a more ruthless club would have. As it stands, we’re not going to get big money for him after this loan spell, I think the priority now must be getting his wages off the books as soon as possible. Nice guy, just not a top tier footballer anymore.

Anonymous Physicist

I think we probably would have sold him last summer if Giroud’s injury hadn’t happened. That injury made Podolski pretty much our only proven premier league goalscorer, so it would have been foolish to sell him. By the time the Welbeck transfer happened, it was too late to arrange something for Podolski.

Simon

If football was a ‘who can boot it the hardest with their left foot’ competition he would win everything.

He seems to love the club but he’s just a too old-fashioned type of player. A bit of a luxury footballer really who just doesn’t seem to ‘fit’ at left wing or at centre forward. A great finisher but the Premier League needs more from the forwards defensively nowadays.

I can’t really see him being a gooner next season. We’ll still have the youtube highlights though.

Policeman's Bangers 'N' Mash

££££££££££££

Rohith J

I have lot of memories associated with Podolski and Schweinsteiger as Euro 2004 was when I started developing an understanding of football in a cricket crazy country (India). I was excited to see Poldi join Arsenal purely because of the fact that I’ve seen him since his debut. Also the year the Invincibles happened. So it’s pretty safe to say I had an unrealistically high expectations of what proper football was.

GoonerChris

I was pretty excited when we signed Poldi, I thought he could be one of our star players for at least a few years. But the truth of the matter is he just doesn’t suit our playing style. When we were playing a bit more without the ball and we were more direct, he was quite useful, but now our football has moved up a few gears and he just doesn’t cut it. He didn’t have the stamina or movement to play the wide role, and doesn’t offer you any presence or sharpness up top as well. Wouldn’t be a… Read more »

santori

Likely not staying. Great shot from left but offers very little versatility to the team which thrives on movement and fluency. Plus we have to rejuvenate the ranks this summer. Rosicky, Arteta are great players but will only show more wear and tear. We have plenty of experience to cover them in the squad at the moment. I feel we will add in midfield if anything in lieu of Rosicky/Arteta/Diaby. Someone who can cover both central midfield link role and as a DM plus add a bit of the height and power (and skill) of Diaby will be worth paying… Read more »

Özchez

I love Poldi, but I think it’s time we had a proper No. 9

ArseHobbit

“The German remains a popular character…”

You wouldn’t think it from these comments. More seen as a bit of a joke which is a shame as there’s no denying he’s scored some important goals for us.

League cup game against Southampton where Diaby looked sharper than he did was the death knoll for me.

#Aufweidesein #SoLongAndThanksForAllTheHashtags #Aha

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