I like Podolski, but he's hardly going to set the world alight. Germany seem to be very good at getting the best out of players who maybe aren't world-class at club level (Klose being an obvious example). He's about to come up against much better defenders than he's used to.
Klose's a very good example. Even with balls being played into him by Ribery and Robben he wasn't very impressive.
As I said my definition of world class is how good a player is it doesn't matter how many players are better than him it's how good I think he is. You could have 11 players with Messi's ability but by your definition 1 wouldn't be world class simply because the others are better. Messi Ronaldo Gomez RVP Villa Benzema Higuain Tevez Aguero Ibra Rooney Theres 11 who are better, but by your own argument one of those isn't world class which one is it?
I wouldn't *definitely* class Gomez, Benzema and Higuain as world class. Even so, there are a few more I could add onto that list above of Podolski. And it's not a definitive 10, but I'd think that world class is relative to the class of other players around. If there are 10 Messi clones in the future then players the standard of Rooney wouldn't be nearly world class because there would be 10 players much better than him.
Where as I have it as a set level of ability that doesn't move depending on the standard of players in that position.
After his latest tournament debacle, where England actually looked better without him, you have an arguable case.
I'd say there are three world class players at the moment, Ronaldo, Messi and Iniesta. The rest are just good. Also, Podolski's scoring record for Germany is deceptive, I think in total about 10 of his 44 goals were against San marino. Also think that when Van Persie says that when 'he disagree's about how the club should move forward' it translates as 'I disagree with the fact that the club has decided to offer me 130K a week when Yaya Toure gets 250k a week'. Anybody who thinks footballers get paid too much must support Arsenal. I hope Arsenal make him stay unless they get an offer of at least 20 million, because at 29 next summer would be a good time to shift him anyway.
2 against Thailand, 3 against South Africa, 2 against Luxembourg, 4 against San Marino, 3 against Liechtenstein, 2 against Azerbaijan, 2 against Slovakia, then if we rule out single goals against non teams we also have Kazakhstan, China, Slovenia, Northern Ireland etc... a lot of his goals were against joke teams.
Bit harsh on Slovakia tbh, they are a lot better than the other teams you mentioned, but I get the drift. Roughly half of his goals are against opposition that at best are League 1/2 standard.
I can see Podolski being OK, Giroud being another Chamakh. Even if they do lose RVP, which looks likely, they will still come 3rd/4th, whereas if they kept him, they would finish 3rd/4th. RVP isn't the answer to all their prayers.
World class for me means a really special "oncee in a generation" type players. They're usually pretty thin on the ground.
world-class (wûrldkls) adj. 1. Ranking among the foremost in the world; of an international standard of excellence; of the highest order: a world-class figure skater. 2. Great, as in importance, concern, or notoriety.
2nd biggest shareholder, Alisher Usmanov has now said what everybody has been saying about Arsenal for about 10 seasons: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18722962 Long may they ignore the advice, because they are just going to slip further.
The Arsenal board don't want Usmanov to join the board for some reason. He's worth £12bn and apparently would invest in the team. Oh Arsenal...
You can see his point, didn't he offer to pay off all the Arsenal debt. Plus give Wenger 300 odd mil to spend?, but the biggest share holder and the board refused. They won't even let him join the board as the current one says it will bring to many arguements. All seems crazy to me.
