Podolski finally confirmed

Today's announcement was as expected as snow at Christmas. Lukas Podolski will join Arsenal at the end of the German Bundesliga season.

You can read Arsenal's confirmation and summary of his career here.

The 26-year-old forward might well reach 100 caps for Germany in the coming European Championships. Podolski is a quality signing in anyone's book, the kind Arsenal fans have been craving. An established international, and hopefully an addition to Robin van Persie, not a replacement.

This season Podolski has carried FC Köln, perhaps even more than van Persie have carried Arsenal. Podolski's club are flirting with relegation, but their main striker and former captain's goals still keeps them above the bottom three.

An interesting point about transfers this weekend was Arsène Wenger's statement after the draw at Stoke:


"At the end of the season I think you will have big surprises because there will not be a lot of movement in football."

We shouldn't expect too many ins and outs from Arsenal this silly season. Then again, that's not news to  this blog, where the whole point is to lower transfer expectations to a sensible level!