Bayern Munich was certainly interested to sign Giroud, but they saw him too similar to Gomez so they went for different strikers. We went for Podolski very early, before anyone could make a move and we got a player with high reputation. But I wouldn't say he is a top tier footballer. Santi Cazorla was top class signing, but he came a year too late IMO. One more thing in terms of ambition: Matthias Sammer of Bayern mentioned yesterday that Mario Goetze had some 'incredible offers', and yes, an offer from Arsenal was among them. If targeting Goetze wasn't ambitious then I don't know what is. That was the second attempt of signing him, after Dortmund rejected an offer nearly 2 years ago. This time it was up to the player, and he chose Bayern. I do agree with the general statement that we need to buy quality and proven players for the squad. We will free up some space if we manage to shift the likes of Bendtner, Chamakh, Djourou or Santos, plus Arshavin and Squillaci are certain to leave anyway. They're all on 50k-60k pw. And we are not gonna lose anyone important, that would be the first time in three years that we could keep the star players together.
