Arsenal Rumours: Koln hierarchy told of Podolski exit to Arsenal

According to goal.com Koln chairman Werner Wolf has told the club’s board that their star striker Lukas Podolski will join the Gunners at the end of the season.

The German international looks a done deal for Arsenal after months of speculation with Wenger admitting he wants some more top players, including Koln’s main man. The Gunners are confident of gaining his services at the beginning of the transfer window for a reported €12.9 million as ‘Poldi’ only has twelve months on his contract at the end of this campaign.

The Bundesliga side were hoping to retain their star strikers services by offering the 26-year-old a bumper contract, but it seems he has his heart set on playing in England after reportedly turning down an even more lucrative £40million offer from Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala in favour of joining Arsenal.

Koln have failed to live up to Podolski’s needs with the club faltering at present, so the departure is inevitable. Wenger will be keen to get his man as soon as the window opens so that he can join preseason from the get go to prevent a repeat of last years fiasco that saw a host of players come in on deadline day, a few weeks after the league had started.

This proved to be detrimental to the Gunners progress as the new look side barely had a chance to train together, so next season will be a different story. Wenger also discussed that he wants more top class players, so who else do you think he will add to the mix? Personally I can’t really see any other high profile players being brought as I discussed in yesterday’s article, but would love Wenger to prove me wrong!