Seems to be on the verge of leaving the club. Proposed transfer to Juve in the works. I would be sorry to see him leave, adds much needed squad depth. Not sure what to make of his tenure here (if he were to leave this season), it's been a mix of some good and some bad. I will wish him all the best.
I'd be disappointed to see him leave as he's a great character to have in the squad, but his game time has been so limited at Arsenal and we've never really found his best position. If he did go then I'd really like to see us bring in another striker.
I'd be gutted! I love Podolski! I think selling Podolski would have more of a negative effect on morale than signing Balotelli would have!
I'm more than happy for him to go as long as we replace him. We'll get a decent amount of money for him (£10 million being thrown around), we'll take circa £100K off the wage bill, or swap it over to a far better player, and we'll hopefully sign a player that can perform on a consistent basis and last 90 minutes.
If I'm being cynical; it's a great time to offload him. At 29 years old, his best days are almost behind him. I do like him as a personality though. He seemed to enjoy his stay here.
I think he'd still do a job as an impact sub, but I suppose he wouldn't be satisfied with that. Although I almost never disagreed with Wenger when he was the first to be subbed off in the games he started. Give him a half decent chance near the box and he would convert, but he just was too impatient to be in the right area during a 90 minute game. Seemed to get anxious when off the ball, meaning he tracked back to weird positions.
Wenger said Podolski is in the squad for tomorrow evening's game against Besiktas, and that he's going no where, so Podolski is very much in.
Do we like Podolski because of his footballing ability or because he has a clever agent and knows how to use social media to its full effect? I think he can do a useful job as an impact sub but I think if he weren't so damn likeable on twitter then people wouldn't really care that much. He's wooed me too so don't try and make out I want him gone!
Stats in Prem: For last season he played 20, scored 8 and assisted 4. In the 12/13 season he played 33, scored 11 and assisted 10. Not earth shattering but decent. The big question is, he good enough to play for Arsenal and what is his best position?
As Lazarus pointed out, Podolski has been a useful servant to the club, 19 goals as a winger in 2 seasons is not bad by any means, and 14 assists not bad at all. 11 goals and 10 assists in 1 season as a winger is quite good. I think he is good enough for Arsenal, we could obviously do with a better winger i.e. Di Maria, but Podolski does bring something to the Arsenal table, he doesn't deserve to start every game, but he still has a place for us.
I agree but I do think he's a lazy little sh*t when he plays. He looks like he's bustling everywhere but he doesn't cover much ground. It also looks like his only contributions in games are assists or goals. That's fine whilst he's doing that but if he is playing as a winger for example then he needs to do more work tracking back and covering his fullback. When he's played up front by himself it hasn't really worked.
I think it's a moot point now after Wenger has confirmed that the Pod will be staying with us. I wonder if this was in response to Giroud's injury or he was always staying.
Eh true. I'm just fed up with all this transfer business that I don't really give credence to rumors until they are 100% confirmed. The question now is does Podolski play up front?
I find it hard to believe that Podolski would clear out his social media of Arsenal references if there wasn't a quite advanced transfer in the works. I think the Giroud injury has changed things somewhat. It'll be interesting to see if Pod gets a shot up front.
