Danny Welbeck’s big-money move to Arsenal could make it difficult for Lukas Podolski to secure regular game time in the coming weeks although the German international still thinks he has the trust of manager Arsene Wenger.
The World Cup winner notched a respectable 12 goals in 27 appearances last term but appeared increasingly frustrated by his time on the substitutes’ bench after recovering from an injury that sidelined him for the best part of three months before Christmas.
Faced with more competition than ever for a starting berth, the 29-year-old told Kicker magazine (translation by ESPN.co.uk) that he was taking a more long-term approach.
“Initially, it’s a difficult situation for me. When you buy new players for a lot of money they have an advantage because they will play. We’ve got a long season ahead of us, and we’ll see what happens.
“When I am in top shape, I am a perfect fit for the Arsenal team. And I see myself in the first XI then, that’s what I work towards.”
Given Theo Walcott’s imminent return, the acquisition of Welbeck and Alexis Sanchez, the return from loan of Joel Campbell, the potential of Serge Gnabry and the ability of Mesut Ozil, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Santi Cazorla to also play in wide attack, Podolski certainly does have his work cut out.
He claims though that a chat with Arsene Wenger was enough to persuade him to turn down the enquiries of other European clubs.
“I had a chat with Arsene Wenger, during which he told me that he is banking on my firepower and assists, and wants to keep me. That’s why the issue of a transfer was rather secondary to me. I feel great in London and at Arsenal, and it continues to stay like that.
“There were some enquiries from abroad, and also from the Bundesliga. But as a Cologne guy, it would have been difficult to play for another club in Germany. To go to Russia – Walachia [a German expression for the middle of nowhere] – or the United States was in no way an alternative for me.”
Podolski also touched on Arsenal’s title ambitions for the year ahead as they look to build on the FA Cup and Community Shield successes of recent months. Pinpointing a need to improve against other big clubs, he concluded:
“The title is not a dream, it’s possible. But there are five or six other teams with similar thoughts. It will be down to the details in the end.
“We only won six points in the matches against the other top five clubs . Those were the points that cost us the title. We were in front for half a year, but dropped decisive points against Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool towards the end. We need to change that this year.”
Can I correct you. Ozil doesn’t have the ability to play in the wide positions. He may be forced to play there but he definitely doesn’t have the right skill set to play there.
In short are you saying his great title-winning showing on the left side of the field for the world champions in the summer was a flute!? I’ll be damned…
FLUKE I meant to say… pardon.
not that is was a fluke, but that ozil’s supporting cast for the German national team was more efficient than what we’ve got in our current arsenal team. mueller is a much more clinical/end-product oriented player than what we’ve got (although I’m hoping walcott’s return will make that statement untrue). also, the german defense is much more solid than ours, making any defensive weakness less of an issue. when you look at the overall team, ozil playing out left for us is never going to be as good as ozil out left for Germany. at the end of the day… Read more »
I don’t know. Danny Wellbeck did okay tonight against Switzerland. He was pretty damn clinical from where I was watching.
That boy might just be an answer.
Yes a flute it was! a nice, harmonic and melodious flute!
Pace, Passing, Agility, Dribbling.
Awful skill set for an inside forward.
when people say play wide everybody thinks winger, sometimes inside forward ala walcott, but that is not the limit of wide player styles, ozil can play wide, he cannot play as a winger
you just had to put that monstrous Poldi smile..
Didn’t Ozil play wide for Germany and win the World Cup?
you’re right he did. But then he had mueller to feed not Sa-NO-GO
Yes. And he has since talked at some length about how he hated it. Germany presumably put him there because the alternative was to drop him altogether since they had better options for the centre but not for the wing. We don’t. We have Sanchez, Podolski, Campbell, Walcott, Ox, Cazorla, possibly Welbeck, even possibly several untried others – e.g. the phenomenally pacy and more defensive Bellerin – to play on the wing and run on to Oezil’s inch-perfect balls. Oezil needs runners. Isolate him on the left and he’ll just saunter about ineffectually looking languid and lost. Why pay 40m… Read more »
It must be difficult for him being out of the team, but he’s saying all the right things and keeping positive, so good on him. Others might have started to sulk. He’s right that the season is long, people go in and out of form, so he will get his chance – hope he takes it.
Prince Poldi must be wondering what’s f*cking hell is going on, when he sees Sanogo in the team ahead of him.
Podolski has 19 PL goals from 54 games mainly playing on left. Sanago hasn’t been able to manage a single goal from his 17 games playing centre forward. Aha!
What happens when Poldi plays centre forward in our system? Let’s be fair, he’s not a lone striker that will hold the ball up. Put him in a 4-4-2 and i’m sure he’ll score goals. But we don’t play like that right now and playing him instead of Sanogo would be inaffective and not playing to his strengths.
If he’s not in top shape yet he should be concentrating on that, which i’m sure he is, and working on making that left sided position his own, preferably before theo comes back and there is even more competition for places.
Yeah he did play wide, but he was poo at it. Probably the best no.10 in the world but Wenger knows best to play himnouy wide where he costs us goals because he can’t be arsed to track a runner.
he needs to play well wherever he plays.
I’m a big fan of Ozil in the No. 10 position, but he was fairly effective playing wide for Germany. He created a lot of chances and wasn’t such a big liability defensively.
If he’s asked to play there by the manager then that’s where he needs to play, and well.
Such excuses are wearisome.
Certainly something doesn’t feel right about Poldi and Arsene. Can’t understand why he doesn’t get more minutes. 27 appearences, but a lot as sub, so would love to see him get more time.
And Rosicky too. Is he holding them back for later in the season? I don’t understand. Tomas always seems to play more after January.
I really fucking love that photo. Gets me every time!
Blogs/News Hound, off topic here, I can’t help but notice that most of the times I comment on something it takes 33 Bendtner light years til that ” Your comment is awaiting moderation.” leaves.
Any reason why?
Comments are approved manually, sometimes it can take a while as we have other things on the go, but we do our best.
What triggers a comment for moderation? I’ve posted descriptions of a certain Chel$ki player that consisted almost entirely of four-letter words, and not got moderated, and then something totally innocuous gets flagged. What am I doing wrong?
This is mildly amusing as they must have manually accepted to ignore your question
Hmmm…thank u for staying and believing in the Arsenal, hope u reward the manager’s trust with lotta goals.
I wonder if Podolski is the most substituted player in recent times. Atleast I’ve never seen him complete 90 mins in an Arsenal shirt
If the HAPPIEST man on the planet tells you that you have an ADVANTAGE then you really have an advantage…
Welbeck,its time to prove yourself!!!!!
I really wonder what Poldi does when he’s involved in a street fight. He definitely doesn’t throw a kick; nobody’s dead from a Poldi kick yet (I guess).
really nice to know poldi did the calculations and has an idea how we lost the title. he cares.
Liverpool need no calculations. one almighty slip from Gerrard was enough
hahahahahahaha i laugh to this day.
lolly lol
Sometimes, theres just one slip between the cup and zip
especially when i dunno a week earlier they had just beat city 3″-2 and there you could see Gerrard gathering his teammates at the anfield centre …….i wonder what he was tellin them?)) hahahaha
Ozil may well be a wc winner but he hardly set the tournament alight. Hoping for a bit more from him this season. Anyway back on track.. sure glad we still have poldi’s hammer to look forward too.
Yea he wasn’t doing overhead kicks or messi-esque runs every 5 minutes but he was key in that tournament.
Why is this comment getting thumbed down? If you dont see it on the pitch, look at the stats, if you dont see it there, go watch NBA or something!
For a player of his quality I expect more. I don’t believe he was key in the tournament. He did fine but was not exceptional by any means. A few years before he was the focus of the German attack. Everything creative went through him.
I know confidence is vital for him and I support him all the way. We’re very protective of Ozil and rightly so. I’m willing to give him time. But let’s not pretend he has lived up to his billing and price tag just yet. In time i’m sure he will but not quite yet
well 2 ways to look at it from wengers view a great sub to bring on and make things happen with his thunderbolts and crosses which Giroud managed to get on the end of a few times now we have Welbeck to do the same, from poldi’s position £50,000 a week for part time work nice if u can get it, and coming on as a sub wont be asked to track back which he dont like to do, but with a fit squad (yes as if we always have) the cup games he will get lots of game play… Read more »
Really dont get those people that think, not playing and sitting on the bench is comparable to a part time job. As far as I know you dont work as a football player you live as a football player. A professional football player is working and exercising every freakin day, so playing in the big games at the weekend is a reward for all the hard work and not playing is pretty much the worst thing that can happen to your mental health, but Podolski is strong on that part, that guy never stops smiling. 😀
Agreed.
To pull an example from another sport, it is akin to Mr Bolt being paid for the 9.whatever seconds it takes him to run a 100m race, and ignore the months of training and conditioning he needs to do for his body to be able to achieve that feat.
I am no way even 1 percent as good as arsene as a football manager…. but if there ever was something I would advise arsene , it would be to play poldi more….. his goal scoring record is awesome for his country as also for us in whatever little game time he gets… while I acknowledge ge hasn’t set the field on fire when he has started for us, he has the ability to get us a goal out of nowhere…. something you cannot say of the rest of our strike force available at the moment
I fucking love that picture of Smiling Poldi
I feel that in order to beat all the big cunts away from home we really need to be mentally prepared first.All the dithering and ball watching and uncertain passing has to go,we need to start fast and take the game to the likes of shitty,liverslip and cuntsea because seeing our gunners crash once was bad enough,if it happens again then we seriously need to look at managerial alternatives.Fingers crossed we take revenge this season and rambo fucks up stamford bridge
How I hate international break. I can’t wait for saturday.
Why can’t Ozil play on the left? He’s left-footed, can cross the ball, he’s faster than Cazorla or Poldi. In addition he seldom remains in the center of the attack, he has a free role. I prefer my #10 to be a threat to shoot on goal, which he isn’t. Ozil must track back better.
Because he doesn’t have the balance of a winger. He’s a master at offense, probably the best in the league at creating chances, but he just isn’t particularly good at defending. He never will be.
Besides, I can’t recall Bergkamp ever being asked to play as a winger either. He had vision way beyond Freddie or Pires, but it would still be madness to use him on either wing instead of them.
Just a small note: I’m not saying Bergkamp or Ozil are unable to play as a winger. They’re both able to, obviously, but you won’t see the best of them there.
Been a while since I’ve read a Rambling Pete post,,,,
Well he could but as you say he doesn’t track back and leaves us badly exposed. But playing out wide also means he is on the ball less and more importantly on the ball in less dangerous positions.
I just think it is a waste as it was a waste with Arshavin.
First thing – Welbeck is not a big money move. 16M in today’s market is for second rate strikers. Not saying Welbeck is a 2nd rate striker. We were just lucky to get him.
Secondly… If Poldi did not play much last season, I am struggling to see how he will play more with Sanchez, Walcott coming back and now Welbeck who can also play on the left. All the best though.
Welbeck isn’t exactly world class…so you’re almost right.
A Thor Hammer of “A LEFT FOOT”
a “thor hammer of a left foot” sounds so much cooler than a “mjolnir of a left foot”…
He would be awesome in a 4-4-2. But hey i guess weve just got too many quality midfielders to accommodate.
Poldi can work hard on his stamina and skills,he can beat them to first team start with his experience.
Don’t think Podolski will be with us for much longer. Hope he has a spiffing last season with us and hammers in some goals. That second attacking line of Alexis, Poldy, Walcott and Campbell will be crucial. if you look at our Cf line compared to the other peer rivals (Chelsea, City, United, maybe Liverpool), it won’t scare that many teams. But if Welbeck hits stride and the secondary strikers start banging them in, we have a potential for a lot of goals. Wenger has made his calculations. I don’t think (whilst it will be great) that it will be… Read more »
Off topic as usual, but reading Cesc Fabregas (I call him by his full name since now…it’s a rejection thing) saying that he loves Arsenal but will give everything to beat them gave me this dream while I was sleeping from Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin is consumed by the dark side and is beaten by Obi Wan and sinking into lava, while Obi Wan saying he had been his brother and had loved him. But it was Cesc sinking and Arteta saying those things, while he was consumed by blue fire (symbolic). Then Arteta left on his ship,… Read more »
Also off topic, but on Chel$ki’s 2014 team calendar, you’ll see that Mr. October is Juan Mata (warming Womanchester United’s bench), Mr. November is Fernando Torres (missing from close range for AC Milan), and Mr. December is Frank Lampard (being fat for Manchester $chitty). Some great foresight there, no wonder they’re such shit.
WHY ARE YOU LOOKING AT CHELSEA CALENDERS?
I’m not. I read about it in the paper. What, do you think I’m some kind of pervert?
What a great picture, and attitude. Lots of players fighting for a place upfront this year.
Love Podolski, but I don’t agree. Being 3 years in a team IS the advantage against the new comer.Grab it by the teeth Poldi 🙂
He has his good games but his movement is so poor that he can’t play. Never runs in behind at all, pretty poor at combination play. He’s really an odd 1 out. Thing is, I think having him from the bench is a big bonus. One of the few in our team who can score with one chance. Given 3 chances, he’ll probably put 2 away. Rarely misses a “good” chance.
Wait, we have some players with good movement? Which ones?
We just pass it side to side. At least Poldi might have a pop!
Thanks United!
2 goals from Welbeck today against a very decent Swiss team.
Keep putting them away for us too mate.;)
He could he be the answer, great finishes
Two goals for Welbeck against Switzerland tonight. I think he’ll do very well for us – he’s the pure poacher we’ve been looking for, with pace and strength to boot.
Get in Wele!
I just hope Wenger will give Welbeck a chance. I like the manager but sometimes he makes odd decisions.
yea, like playing tgsel on the wing
TGWTEL (Greatest Winger That Ever Lived)
One off the shin the other carressed in. Keep it going Danny boy.
On another note, happy for Danny!!
That smile! #Poldi #happy 🙂
Arsene is known to use to that wide role to revive players’ hunger and their defensive duties. He’s done it with Ramsey and look who we have in Ramsey today. He did same with Kos, and also with Wilshire last season and today he’s doing it with Ozil. It’s something that has always worked for him. Arsene has been in Arsenal for more than 18 years now and he’s been one of the most successful managers of all time. Give him some credit guys. I am very sure Ozil won’t player from the wings for long. As soon as Walcott… Read more »