Bild: Arsenal sign Podolski for £10.8m

City have never mentioned they want him, have they?

The news today suggests a fee has been agreed and now it's only a matter of formalities. This from BBC Sport and Young Guns, two of the most reliable sources you can find when it comes to transfers.

Fee is believed to be in the region of £10.8mil. Wages are anything between £100k p/w and £140k p/w. Seems like they haven't quite decided how much it is exactly.

One would think if we're prepared to give this guy that much, we're prepared to give van Persie just as much.

Apparently we tried to sign him in January but Podolski was hesitant to move in case it risked his Euro 2012 spot. So end of the season seems to suit both parties.

Its looks like the Arsenal board learned their lesson for last year, we are not done yet we have to get rid of few players and bring in few quality players.

Götze and M'Vila I dont want Hazard, I think he is one of those players will go where the money is and back stab us once a big club comes calling.

Congrats,

Hazard to Chelsea now plssssssssssssssssss.

Watch him troll us all and go Spuds though

Do we have to bring up Hazard and Götze every time?

Neither are coming. One will go to whoever offers him the best money and the other has comitted himself to another year at his club. Just forget about them already.

Plus, next season we will go with Chamberlain in the middle in addition to returning Diaby(hopefully) and Wilshere. No more cm's imo.

Plus Thomas Eisfeld..

i said that in jan about hazard and that im not excited at all good that you think same now raptor

Sina wrote:i said that in jan about hazard and that im not excited at all good that you think same now raptor

I would take Gotze over him, to Jay Gotze is coming to Arsenal just wait and see. German market is the best to get players now.

Jay what about Ozil?

beatrixasdfghjk. wrote:What are blue?

Blue are back ups only coming in the side in case of injuries Ramsey needs to prove himself to get out of the blue

GoonerJay29 wrote:Do we have to bring up Hazard and Götze every time?

Neither are coming. One will go to whoever offers him the best money and the other has comitted himself to another year at his club. Just forget about them already.

If we finish above Spurs and our current form continues and podolski arrives,

What's to say Hazard wont?

He won't have any advantages that spurs have that we don't, and we are clearly the ones with the history and the market power. Gotze, I agree, is not possible anymore,

Also, if we're going to pay Poldi that much in wages, we can surely offer the same to Hazard?

So why not Hazard?

Well if I were Mario Götze I wouldn't leave Dortmund just yet. Dortmund are enjoying a period of success and have a young side constantly improving and will have one of the best young talents in Marco Reus at the club next season. Right now it's a great time to be a Dortmund player and it's the perfect environment for a player like him to continue growing.

I'm also struggling to think where we'll be able to fit another attacker now that it seems we're signing Podolski. If Podolski takes up the position on the left wing that means we can use Gervinho as a right winger if Walcott is not available or just being rubbish. And there's the options of Chamberlain and Miyaichi.

Centrally we've still got Wilshere to return and Ramsey and Arteta to fit in. Plus Chamberlain and van Persie can both play behind the striker.

If one of Walcott or van Persie (or even both) decide they want to leave then that's a different story, but on the assumption they'll both stay I'm struggling to see where we would fit a player like Hazard/Götze into the side.

Varun_Mainstream wrote:

GoonerJay29 wrote:Do we have to bring up Hazard and Götze every time?

Neither are coming. One will go to whoever offers him the best money and the other has comitted himself to another year at his club. Just forget about them already.

If we finish above Spurs and our current form continues and podolski arrives,

What's to say Hazard wont?

He won't have any advantages that spurs have that we don't, and we are clearly the ones with the history and the market power. Gotze, I agree, is not possible anymore,

Also, if we're going to pay Poldi that much in wages, we can surely offer the same to Hazard?

So why not Hazard?

There are two prevelant problems here. The first is the transfer fee. Podolski is a big name signing but he's coming for as little as £10.8mil. Hazard will probably cost triple that, which, as we're all too aware, is just not the sort of money Arsenal pay.

The second problem is wages. Yes, we're offering Podolski a lot of money but a quick look at our wage bill suggests there is very little room for another player to be on that sort of money. We'd have to sell the deadweight players to make room and that's not an easy task, as we found out last summer.

I won't rule it out as an impossibility but I would think it's very unlikely we'll make a move for Hazard.

Götze ain't coming.

If we need a Götze type depends on how Wilshere will develop. Are we deploying him in a deeper position as he was last season, a sort of box to box but very technically able midfielder able to retain possession, or are we molding him to an AM role where he can focus on creativity?

Performance wise, Song-Wilshere was incredible and IMO I'd rather we get an AM if we're going to possession route. There is also Ramsey, but we all saw this season that he's clearly not suited for such an advanced position. If we include Ramsey, then:


with:



as bench. Long term, Arteta and Rosicky aren't getting any younger so I'd get another midfielder purely out of depth and due to the inevitable injury crisis which after like 4 seasons of the same crap it's pretty much as predictable as winter.

I see no reason why a Song-Arteta-Wilshere wouldn't work, even if there's no outright creative force there. That trio would have everything you'd want in a midfield; a robust holding player in Song, a disciplined dictator in Arteta and a positive, direct player in Wilshere. And if we'd like, we could throw in a Coquelin, Frimpong, Ramsey, Diaby, Lansbury, Rosicky and Chamberlain.

We've seen this season that if we play with a quick tempo with an emphasis on wing play we'll cause teams problems. And you'd expect the likes of Gervinho and Walcott to improve and Chamberlain and Miyaichi to continue their development.

So I simply feel we've enough options already and don't really require a big money midfielder in the summer.

Things could change, of course. Rosicky might not be offered a new deal. Diaby and Lansbury could both be sold. Injuries could happen.

We should buy Hazard/Gotze only if Walcott leaves.

Szczesny
Sagna Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Wilshere Song
Hazard/Gotze AOC Podolski
RVP

Rosicky, Gervinho, Ramsey, Arteta for rotation + bench.

We should loan Walcott to Bolton? I think he will benefit from a loan.

We should buy Hazard/Gotze only if Walcott leaves.

Szczesny
Sagna Koscielny Vermaelen Gibbs
Wilshere Song
Hazard/Gotze AOC Podolski
RVP

Rosicky, Gervinho, Ramsey, Arteta for rotation + bench.

Gervinho will not sit on the bench and Neither will Ramsey, we have a better chance getting Messi than both Hazard and Gotze.

I would love to have them both, would make us threat to every competition.

We don't need Hazard now that Podolski is coming. We're pretty much set in wide players with Walcott, Gervinho, Ox and now Podolski.

I agree we don't need a big money midfielder, I'd just like some better bench options. I'd love one of those out-of-nowhere Wenger buys.

Or maybe Eisfeld is this player?

We need competition among our if we want to win major trophies we need to have quality players sitting on our bench.

Yes, we wouldn't need Hazard as much when Poldi comes, but if Chelsea don't make that 4th spot, we are clear front runners to land him, so why shouldn't we try?

He's an unbelievable talent and his ceiling is absolutely ridiculous, and we are rarely gonig to get chances to get such a talented player who is willing to join us over the other Euro giants. He is also a perfect winger, who would give Walcott a good kick to perform better, and fill in the AM role when our other injury prone midfielders are out. What we lack is quality in depth, and its time to address these needs, and make players fight for their spots.

I would rather we got Gotze too, but he's not going anywhere for at least another season.

keisuke honda or renato augusto would be nice for CAM if we dont put Chambo (don't say wilshere, smh) there but knowing wenger he's content with what he has + podolski

Ehhh guys ! asking me we should sign him n (Shachiri -Xhaka-Mehmedi-Xhemaili -Berisha-Ujkani...etc ) last summer instead of park,santos,gervinho,mertesacker,benayoun... lol

Fantastic Signing, Really happy.


And i agree with jay, We dont need Hazard with Podolski coming in. Rule him out.

Goetze would mean 40m. Sorry but i rather get Kagawa or Honda.

The flair and close control of Kagawa or Honda's sweet left foot.

Just imagining Honda, Podolski and van Persie all in the same side...

Varun_Mainstream wrote:


Also, if we're going to pay Poldi that much in wages, we can surely offer the same to Hazard?

So why not Hazard?

First, he costed 13 millions + 4*7 millions wages. You'd have to pay 35millions for Hazard+4*5-7 millions in wages.
As much talented as Hazard is, Podolski will sell shirts in loads. He is highly popular abroad, guess why?

By the way, congrats RG. He plays fast, physical one touch football and actually shoots when it matters His creative passing is very underrated imho :grin

Podolski will be a totally new monster in the PL. He has the usual PL attributes in speed, shot power and strength, but also has a decent ammount of flair and can definitely create chances if needed.

It's annoying having so many attacking players, yet no where to put them.

Let's buy a CB and play 3 man defense