Could Pod have been a God at Arsenal?

The quick answer to that question is 'yes'. That's what makes it doubly difficult to fathom why it didn't work out for Lukas Podolski at Arsenal.

Podolski is the latest big name to move on freeing up a large proportion of the wage bill and bringing in a few million into the Arsenal transfer kitty in the process.

Given that Poldi was loaned out last season, he will not be greatly missed. However, when he did play for Arsenal, he proved on numerous occasions that he still has an eye for goal. Indeed, I expected great things from the Germany international who was given the 'cursed' number 9 shirt. I expected German efficiency in front of goal; to some extent, we got that. I expected German industry, stamina and team-work too, but sadly that wasn't what we got.

Nevertheless, Poldi's goals alone made him a good bench warmer, offering Arsenal a plan P (if you like): another source of goals if Olivier Giroud dried up. Unfortunately, that was all he would ever be, as he always struggled to look fit enough to complete the full 90 minutes. I mean, what did Poldi offer defensively? Not a lot would be my answer, whereas Giroud is able to track back, when necessary, and help out the team.

Added to that is the fact that, like a lot of strikers at Arsenal, Poldi was played out of position a lot of the time. Therefore, in the circumstances, Arsenal were lucky the German hit the net 19 times in 60 league games. That's only one every 3 games, roughly, which is not the sort of goal return you'd expect from a guy who's scored nearly 50 on the international stage.

Ultimately, the club have undoubtedly made the right decision to offload Poldi. He may have been popular with the fans and his team-mates, but his output on the pitch didn't justify keeping him at the club.

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