As everyone knows, Arsenal recently sold German forward Lukas Podolski to Turkish outfit Galatasaray.
When Podolski arrived from FC Köln, he was hauled as the replacement for a departing Robin van Persie. His first season went extremely well; scoring 16 and assisting 12 goals. So, what happened?
Well, there can be many excuses and arguments for this, but the reason was the fact that he had fellow striker Olivier Giroud fighting for a spot in the lone striker role with him… Evidently won by the Frenchman. In response to this, Arsène Wenger, in order to find a spot for Podolski in the starting XI, pushed him out wide, on the left of midfield. Despite his best efforts to try and perform there, Podolski couldn’t find it in himself to put good performances in for Arsenal on the wing, with defensive duties a must, but something the German was not fond of. When this happened, unsurprisingly, Lukas took a knock of confidence; following up to lose his place in the first team, with Spaniard Santi Cazorla filling the void, with Mesut Özil coming in and playing in by far his best and strongest position, just off the striker in the middle of the park.
Now, for the past couple of seasons, we’ve all seen Podolski rot on the bench, with limited chances to try and show what he’s capable of, but when he was given the chance, he more often than not did display his array of talents. However, he still wasn’t given the benefit of the doubt on the starting XI front.
More recently than that, in the 2014/15 season Arsenal loaned him out to Italian side Inter Milan, where even there he couldn’t fit into their first team… So, when it came to the transfer window this summer; after much speculation, Lukas Podolski left for Galatasary in search of a new challenge and first team football.
A career blighted by inconsistency and a great left foot; Lukas Podolski. From club hero to club flop.
