Arsenal Agree £10.9m Podolski Deal – Is He RVP’s Replacement?

Arsenal will sign Lukas Podolski this summer after striking a £10.9m deal with Cologne, according to the Daily Mail.

The Mail revealed that the German striker agreed personal terms with the Gunners last week and all that was left was to agree a fee with his current employers, FC Cologne.

Today they have reported that Arsenal have now managed to settle on a deal believed to be worth £10.9m, despite Cologne initially holding out for nearer £18m, and the 26-year-old will now move to North London this summer.

Interestingly, the report also claims that the German will sign a four-year deal worth over £100,000 per week. Which if true, may be a sign that Arsenal are finally ready to change their restrictive wage structure and compete with the top clubs in terms of wages.

Personally, i am excited about this move as i rate Podolski highly. He is the perfect age and should be coming into his prime years. At just 26, he’s already clocked up over 90 caps and scored over 40 goals for Germany. That’s no mean feat, and he should be a real asset to the squad.

Van Persie replacement?

I only hope he is being brought in as a partner for Van Persie and not as a potential replacement. I’m sure the signing of Podolski is not only designed to bring a quality player to the club, but also as a sign of intent to show RVP that we mean business and are going to have a squad capable of challenging for trophies next season, in the hope of persuading him to sign a contract extension.

But should the Dutchman decide his future lies elsewhere, having Podolski on the books would give Wenger the perfect excuse not to then replace Van Persie, and we’d be back to having only one quality striker at the club.

Van Persie’s future is of critical importance to Arsenal and we’ve already got Man City shamelessly tapping him up in the media, and it’s only March! So i’m hoping we can persuade him to stay at the Grove and signing quality players like Podolski will go a long way to doing so.

I’m going to stay positive on this one and i can see a front three of Podolski, Van Persie and Chamberlain tearing it up next season!