There are two things in this life we take with a pinch of salt:
1 – Reports from the Turkish press
2 – Reports about the future of Lukas Podolski (he’s been linked with countless clubs in the last 12-18 months).
However, the back pages in Turkey are suggesting that a deal with Galatasaray is close to being completed, while the fact Podolski is currently there (on holidays or otherwise), lends a bit of weight to the stories.
As ever it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on, especially when Lukas said last week he felt he could still offer something to Arsenal, but the likelihood of a move far outweighs his chances of staying.
We’re also reading lots into the fact he stands out as one of the only Arsenal players not to welcome Petr Cech to the club via his social media channels.
We’re breaking out the poo-o-meter and giving this a fence s(h)itting 5.
One last taxi for #Poldi. #Aha
Shame, I’m gonna miss him and his occasional thundercunt of a strike that rattles the beans. Pity he could never quite get his arse in gear.
While we will miss him and his thundercunt of a strike, the goalposts at the training ground will be happy to see the back of him!
I think he’s taking the left goalpost with him, the same way Cech wants to bring his goalkeeping coach with him to us.
It would have been nice to have had him earlier in his career.
Going to miss him more so than many.
The move makes sense for all parties
It pays Cech’s wages for a start, and a bit of Cech’s fee. [And we save Diaby’s wages too.]
Leaves money in the bank for someone else if they can improve the squad.
how much you guys think Poldi would bring us? Do you think we could get 5 million pounds or is this more of a wage dump?
Wage dump purely. We are unlikely to get more than £2m.
And you could argue that we could need to pay them given they are unlikely to want to pay that much in wages.
Most sources seem to be suggesting a relatively small amount of money- around £1.9 million or so. It would appear to be more about getting a player that doesn’t quite fit at the moment off the wages, because he is on £100,000 a week. Selling him and Ospina and releasing Diaby should give the wage budget a decent amount of wriggle room, at any rate.
I love Podolski but I think it’s time our paths diverged.
He’s not right for our system and the tail doesn’t wag the dog.. We can’t accomodate him moving forward.
History may well see Lukas as one of our more important signings-
Firstly he signaled the end of project skrimp and youth.
Secondly he was a factor in Ozil choosing the club
Thirdly he signalled the end of wenger’s end of transfer window see whats left panic supermarket sweep policy. He was signed in April.
I think he is a great plan b and will be sorry to see him go. I’d rather have a thunderbastard left foot on the bench and not need it than need one and not have one.
#aha Lukas you mad bastard
That summer when we signed Cazorla, Giroud and Podolski was a turning point in the way we do our transfer business.
He was the first signing in this era of buying stars and like I said I love the guy
If the stories are to be believed, that summer, him giroud and Cazorla coming in actually changed RVPs attitude to the point that he thought about stayin and we sold him as a matter of principle.
I wish him all the best for his future endeavours
What ? You think we sold RVP to man United as a matter of principle?
We’ve all moved on from it now but I actually think we made a statement by not creating a precedent when we sold RVP.
If you recall his letter he said he and the club don’t agree on the direction we’re going and for that reason he was moved on.
You can’t have your employees questioning the vision of the business that’s dangerous territory and we steered clear of future mutinies by not letting him dictate to us our next moves.
Anyways, #aha love you poldi. Twat some in and enjoy your remaining seasons
“Secondly he was a factor in Ozil choosing the club” Nothing, absolutely nothing tells it…
Solid player but not suited to the way we play…
All the best to him – his departure might just open the door enough for Campbell to stick around.
No it won’t.
And that would be beneficial for us how?
Turkey seems to be the place PL rejects go.
Yh, them and terrorists.
err?
didn’t the Cech get 9 poos for his transfer rumour?
I love poldi but its right time for him to move on…
I was one of those who thought it was wrong to loan him out in the last transfer window. How wrong was I!
At the time he signed for us, it was a typical piece of brilliant value business by Wenger.
Now he moving on to another club is the best move for all concerned! Good luck Poldi.
get him off the wage bill, get back what we can and move on!
Time to turn up the level of the first team, Cech’s a great start, but stopping here would be a mistake, time to clear the deadwood and upgrade any position we can.
seems ppl dont want a better team here huh?
With Podolski so active on Twitter, as he hasn’t said anything about the Cech signing, I guess, he definitely is leaving and has decided his future.
A great left foot, but a player needs more.
What is it with our wantaways (ie we want them away) and Galatasaray?
Always a very odd signing; not nippy or pacy enough to play on the left, I can only imagine that he was bought with a view to him being Van Persie’s replacement and it became pretty apparent that that was not viable. It was probably a gamble worth taking and perhaps his presence helped us to get Ozil but it says something that he’ll be remembered first for the bollocks he’d post online. He was bought around the same time as Giroud – one was an established name with loads of German caps to his name, the other relatively unknown… Read more »
He was bought to be a candidate for the problematic LW position that Wenger has had problems with ever since Pires left. Pires wasn’t Theo Walcott either. And Podolski is faster than you give him credit for.
Mind you, it didn’t work out. But Wenger’s been trying to fill that position for ages now and Podolski was clearly bought to be a candidate to fill it.
He is bound to leave I feel and that would be right for both parties…..he gets games and we free up his massive salary. I hope that something is going on behind the scenes with us in talks with possibly Real Madrid over Benzema as I really feel we need another top striker at the club. He would fit into our system and there have been murmurs about Benitez wanting to play Ronaldo centrally and moving Bale fo the left so it makes some sort of sense to me that Real would let him go. Anyway, the signing of Cech… Read more »
Honestly, I dont get what all the fuss about Benzema is for. I think he is hugely over rated.
He turns 28 at the end of this year, so this really is the last summer we could look at getting him and look at long-term value. After that, his reliance on his pace means that a large outlay on him could be risky.
Love him but there is a time to come and a time to go. I wish him well wherever he goes.
Dodgy papers – they can’t even spell Sport correctly – SPOR???
No
No.No
No
No
Spor is how you say sport in turkish
way to miss the attempt at humor completely.
Attempt being the key word there. Easily missed.
There is time for everything. A time to come and a time to go, a time to buy and a time to sell, a time to petr and a time to cech
Obscure Bioshock reference?
Love the fact that his pet dog is called Dogolski.
I’m pretty sure Double 98 was being sarcastic. As is his way. ( and mine)
Hopefully if he is moved on we don’t go down the path of playing Ozil or Santi left or hoping Alexis plays 55 games & Poldi is replaced
Welbeck and Walcott are both capable of playing there too.
Erm, would that be because Welbz, The Ox and Rosicky are unplayable for some reason?
it’s a shame he didn’t have the work rate of Sanchez but sadly I wish the likes of Welbeck and Chambo had his goals and assists
I really had high hopes for Poldi. He’s not done badly but it always seemed like he could give a bit more. He’s just not suited to our formation. He’s neither a wideman or a central striker but something inbetween and there are very few teams that could accommodate this.
Perhaps he would fit well into a team that plays 4-4-2 as the left sided striker.
I like Poldi, I think he added some important goals as a left sided forward in those two seasons, shame his work rate wasn’t there… complete opposite than Danny Welbeck..one more season for Welbeck and then heading in the same direction hopefully.
I never did understand the poo-meter 🙁
To be fair, horoscopes and chips are to be taken with a pinch of salt as well.
That’s right, the poos must be taken with a pinch of salt.
It would be a shame to see him end up in Turkey. Surely there is some newly-promoted German team, at the least, that could do with guaranteed goals and assists. Even Koln struggled for goals, and surely he’d be willing to take a wage cut to go back?
surely not. he is at that age where he needs to think bout retirement funds. Plus, he has had two turns at Köln already I think, so no way he is gonna go back there or to a newly promoted German club. Turkey it is, me tinks and that’s fine by me. One trick pony with a huge social appetite. He needs to be a prince again. But not at Arsenal.
Although I like the guy, if his transfer fee is 2 mio, he can’t be that much of a great player regardless of his relatively quite high wages
Surely he would return to Koln where he can be the main man