It has certainly been one of the happier fortnights in Arsenal’s campaign thus far, and the delight reached another peak yesterday with the news that the club have agreed a £10 million deal for FC Koln’s Lukas Podolski at the end of the current season yesterday. The capture of the 26-year-old Germany international turned heads not only in North London but the world over with Wenger swooping for one of the higher calibre names in the international game. A policy not always adopted by the Frenchman.

Gunners fans have been purring at the thought of a potential pairing with the formidable Robin Van Persie in the teams striking ranks next term, and a wave of new found optimism has swirled around the camp, following the impressive showing against AC Milan. For all connected to Arsenal, they will just hope the 95 cap German will not be a direct replacement for the Dutchman.

With the Gunners transfer dealings’ already in action before the 2011/12 season is out, this directly contrasts the policy of Wenger’s ideologies last term whereby he left many signatures until deadline day through the hope that he was going to be able to keep at least one of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri. Wenger’s judgement upon this issue has been questioned since and it seems he has realised and taken on board this error in time for the next campaign.

So let us examine whether Wenger has finally woken up to a new transfer policy, whereby players can be bedded in much earlier and the names brought to the club are much more worthy in the eyes of the Emirates Stadium faithful.

The new man; Podolski is a head turning signing in the fact he is vastly experienced despite being only 26, an age recognised as a players ‘prime’ in modern day football. Furthermore, his goal scoring exploits speak for themselves with the Polish-born frontman striking 16 league goals this term, and in a struggling Cologne team. The player who will be able to play off the left hand side in the Gunners 4-3-3 formation, is likely to be presented even more chances to score, based upon Arsenal’s impressive assist tallies.

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What’s more is that the striker is reported to be signing a deal worth some £100,000 a week. Whilst the £10 million capture of Podolski represents an ‘Arsenal’ signing in terms of its last year of contract affordability, the wages have certainly been anything but Arsenal-like.

With the clubs current top earner; Van Persie on £80,000 a week but set to be boosted to £100,000 in the summer, Podolski’s arrival on the highest wages reflects Wenger’s change of stance in that he is indeed willing to break the bank in some cases.

This news will be refreshing for Gunners fans everywhere with the arrival of a big name on big money, as opposed to a lesser name, on lesser wages with more time needed to develop in the English game. Whilst it remains to be seen how quick Podolski will adapt to the Premier League, it must be conceded that the Bundes Liga is much stronger than Ligue 1 and the flop signings of Marouane Chamakh and Park Chu Young have certainly been trumped by the new arrival.

The mark of any squad is indeed the strength and depth of it, and on Tuesday night, Chamakh and Park offered little when they were expected to give Arsenal more impetus in the search for that fourth equalising goal. Beyond Arsenal’s first eleven, the replacements haven’t always been up to scratch, but if we surmise that Van Persie will stay, the Gunners forward ranks will appear impressive next term with Podolski, Gervinho, Walcott and Oxlade-Chamberlain forging the choices available to Wenger.

There might be another attacking arrival too if either Chamakh, Park or Arshavin depart and Arsenal fans have mooted moves for the much coveted Eden Hazard and Mario Gotze. Moves for such players of high calibre will not only impress fans but also might have the ability to keep the captain; Van Persie in North London.

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It will certainly be an interesting summer yet again at the Emirates, and Lukas Podolski’s arrival maybe the first sign that an alarm clock has gone off in Arsene Wenger’s head in that he realises the club need to kick on and have a transition free campaign next time round.

What do you think of the Podolski signing? Will the club be able to keep hold of Van Persie with similar high calibre arrivals? Follow me @ http://twitter.com/Taylor_Will1989

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Newcastle striker Demba Ba has admitted that it would be a dream to move to big-spending French side Paris Saint-Germain, but has insisted that he is happy on Tyneside.

The Senegalese forward has been a revelation since moving to Alan Pardew’s men on a free transfer from West Ham in the summer, and has been linked with a raft of leading clubs.

Despite admitting that he one day would like to step out for the Parc des Princes outfit, for the time being he is content at the Sports Direct Arena.

“It’s always a dream for me to play one day at PSG, but I’m really happy where I am in Newcastle,” he told The Sun.

“The English league suits me perfectly.

“I always loved PSG. I saw them beat Marseille at Yohan Cabaye’s place recently.

“But since I joined Newcastle, I have rediscovered the feeling I had when I was a young boy playing on the pitches at the bottom of the street,” he stated.

Despite an excellent season, Ba has not scored in nine games due to the January signing of international colleague Papiss Cisse, but is happy to help the team.

“The coach told me he would put me on the left and for the team I thought, ‘Let’s do it’.

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“I know the qualities of Papiss as a finisher. It does not bother me at all. If I score, that’s great, but if I don’t score there is someone else who does,” he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

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Looking back throughout this season it is difficult to take any positives from the point of view of an Ipswich fan.

Consistently inconsistent has been the phrase used most to describe Ipswich of late and at times it has been hard to watch. To cut a long story short, the management has admitted to making mistakes and results have suffered. It isn’t all doom and gloom though, next season will bring a fresh start and there will be some new faces in the team.

As usual, expectations were very high at the start of the season and a top six finish didn’t seem like an unrealistic ambition. In the opening game of the season Ipswich managed to thrash Bristol City 3-0 with Chopra making a great start by scoring twice. This early result showed what the team could potentially achieve when things went their way and everyone was excited by the thought of a possible return to the Premier League after a 10 year absence. However, something obviously went drastically wrong very early on.

Opposing teams could work out Paul Jewell’s game plan very easily and exploited the tactical holes that existed within the side. Besides the tactical issues, the trouble was that the team only had a couple players who were threatening going forward and even fewer defensively strong players. It was obvious that Carlos Edwards wasn’t playing in his natural position and was often caught too far forward at right back. At left back the young Aaron Cresswell was impressive but still had a lot to learn at the start of the season and experienced players gave him a hard time in some games. Even more problems existed within the central defence as there seemed to be a real lack of leadership and communication, which is essential to maintaining a good back line.

Further up the field, opposing teams worked out that only a couple of Ipswich’s midfielders were capable of passing the ball with the accuracy and variety to break teams down and they found it easy to win the midfield battle. This then caused problems going forward as Chopra really struggled for goals just as much as the team struggled for results. After so many defeats the team looked completely disjointed and were playing with no confidence what so ever. By December any realistic play-off hopes were gone and the team looked more like lower league players struggling to compete, rather than the promotion candidates they were hyped up to be.

Once the team stopped the rot and made a heroic comeback at Barnsley things did start to improve and there have been positives to take from the season. Finishing 15th is always going to be disappointing when originally everyone thought the team would be at least in the top half but the second half of the season has produced some good results and some good performances from certain players. The development of Aaron Cresswell has been the main highlight of the season and the former Tranmere man has clearly learnt a lot since the start of the season. He generally doesn’t get caught out as much going forward and uses his pace very efficiently to stop counter attacks from hurting the team.

Jay Emmanuel-Thomas has also been another player who is looking promising and has started to show his worth in the second half of the season. It will be very interesting to see how these two young players start next season but without a doubt their development has been one of the few positives to take from this season. It has to be said that the more experienced players that were brought in have been very disappointing. Lee Bowyer hasn’t ever been above average and is not a popular choice amongst the fans, Jimmy Bullard hasn’t managed to recapture the performances he showed in his previous time on loan at Ipswich and Ibrahima Sonko has declined after having some solid displays early on. Michael Chopra has been a difficult one to judge as the striker has found a fair few goals but is often criticised for not putting away more, given the amount of chances he has had as a lone striker. It is important to remember that Chopra has had a lot of personal problems this season though, so to finish the season with 14 league goals is something to be proud of. It is difficult to see any of those older players produce anything special next season apart from Chopra who is always fairly reliable when it comes to goal scoring.

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Taking the season has a whole, obviously it has been one to forget with very little to get excited about. The important thing for fans to remember is that things can only really improve as money will be invested into the team and hopefully Jewell will spend that money wisely. Hopefully, next season will bring a bit more excitement and if things go well it will make it easier to forget the tough seasons like this one.

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Fifa president Sepp Blatter has shown his support for goal-line technology, stating that it is no longer an alternate but a necessity.

The footballing world has been torn over whether the sport should use technology for the key decisions in the game, with whether the ball has crossed the line a major case for inclusion.

England escaped a Ukrainian equaliser on Tuesday night as Marko Devic’s effort was cleared off the line by a retreating John Terry, however replays showed that the goal should have been awarded.

The referee decided to play on, despite a linesman being in a great position to make the decision, and the human error has now prompted Blatter to back goal-line technology.

“After last night’s match #GLT (goal-line technology) is no longer an alternative but a necessity,” he told his Twitter followers.

Technology has worked well in other sports such as rugby and tennis, and as such Fifa are expected to make a decision in July over the potential inclusion of technology in football.

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By Gareth McKnight

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Italy and Croatia played out a 1-1 draw in Group C of Euro 2012 on Thursday night.

The Azzurri went into the lead in the first-half through Andrea Pirlo, however Mario Mandzukic made it three goals in two tournament games when he squared things up in the second 45.

Croatia boss Slaven Bilic has admitted that he is glad his side worked to get back into the game.

“Italy showed once again they’re an exceptional team but I have to congratulate my team for showing willpower and character to fight back in the second half,” he told reporters after the game.

“We had a lot of problems containing (Mario) Balotelli and (Antonio) Cassano in the first half because our midfield was stretched against theirs but we adjusted our strategy in the second half and threw more men forward.”

In another interview after the game Bilic revealed that he felt that referee Howard Webb had favoured his side’s opponents.

“Many coaches do not like to talk about the referees, but I do not agree with that,” Bilic admitted.

“Perhaps I am not going to be objective, but there was a penalty on Nikica Jelavic, while the foul which preceded Pirlo’s free-kick goal did not exist.

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“I do not want to stir up controversy, but the referee favoured Italy.”

Croatia move onto four points and have Spain to play, whilst Italy are on two points and will face Ireland in their last game.

By Gareth McKnight

John Terry has stated that he did not snap when confronting Anton Ferdinand in the notorious incident of reported racist abuse.

The Chelsea defender had his second day of court on Tuesday, and has claimed his innocence against the QPR man’s claims.

Terry has stated that Ferdinand made a quip about the England man’s personal life and supposed affair with Wayne Bridge’s girlfriend.

Despite being questioned, Terry has stated that he did not snap when the Loftus Road centre-back taunted him over the affair.

“It was almost two years on and I had heard it a million times before,” Sky Sports record him as saying.

“If I was going to snap, I would have snapped long before.”

Terry has claimed that he was merely repeating what Ferdinand had mistakenly thought he had said, and has stuck to this train of thought.

“At the time I was shocked and angry. I had never been accused of it on a football pitch and repeated it back.

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“Hindsight’s a wonderful thing. At the time I was shocked, I was angry, you can’t control your emotions,” he concluded.

By Gareth McKnight

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Arsenal are on the hunt for Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente as replacement for club captain Robin van Persie, announced the Daily Mail this morning.

As the Dutchman remains intent on leaving North London, Arsene Wenger and co are now focusing on brining the saga to a quick resolution, selling on van Persie and finding a replacement before the start of the new season in just under a month’s time.

The Gunners will be hoping to make maximum profit on their captain; ensuring funds are available to buy a replacement, with Llorente valued at £28 million after scoring 28 goals in an impressive La Liga campaign last season.

Having already signed Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud, the arrival of Llorente at the Emirates would bring another dimension going forward, as Arsene Wenger seeks goals coming from various positions all over the pitch, rather than relying on one prolific goal scorer as was the case in last season’s campaign.

Van Persie this morning finds himself omitted from the Arsenal squad travelling to the Far East for a pre-season tour next week, making it unlikely he will feature for the Gunners again.

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Robert Lewandowski and Stefan Jovetic have also been linked with a move to North London.

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The jeering at the conclusion of Saturday’s 1-0 loss against Stevenage was not because of the result (well, it was – one point from nine is not the start the fans had wished for). No, the negative, irritated reaction was due to the insipid performance from entire Oldham team

It was bereft of imagination or attacking instinct. It was dull, labourous and lacked an energy that might at some point make the opposition feel slightly uncomfortable. This was a well-oiled Stevenage which still has obvious traces of Graham Westley’s philosophy flowing through it. It is rough, powerful and ready to fight for three points. Ultimately, they were allowed to settle into their usual effective style without many questions being asked.

The single goal loss came from yet another defensive mishap. A long ball aimed simply away from the Stevenage’s penalty area was naively allowed to bounce by young James Tarkowski. The 19-year-old defender was then out-muscled, keeper Alex Cisak raced out and commited a blatant foul inside his area. Penalty awarded. Penalty dispatched.

Last Tuesday night, Athletic were on course for a 1-0 victory against an average Walsall side. However, with 10 minutes remaining club Captain Dean Furman inexplicably attempted a back-pass without realising a Walsall player blocked his path to Cisak. To the home support’s horror, George Bowerman was gifted the opportunity to bury the ball into the net, which he duely did.

Three days previous and Tarkowski was at fault again, bizarrely heading upwards rather than out. MK Dons, who won 2-0, were far from slick yet scored from the resulting corner. For the sake of his self-belief Dickov needs to take him out of the starting 11. Cliff Byrne, with his vast experience and steady, unforgiving nature, makes him a fine candidate to move in from right-back and partner the impressive Jean Yves-M’voto.

So three league games, three defensive calamities. It is very much like last season. Hard work a plenty, lapses of concentration in the dangerous and crucial areas more so. However, move beyond the defence and there are more ills. Take the midfield. With James Wesolowski’s torn hamstring, Dean Furman has a lost his influential partner. The energy was been sapped. There is little imagintion, movement and more worryingly no willingless to find space.

Saturday saw Dickov switch from his usual 4-4-1-1 to a more flat 4-5-1 with the inclusion of Carl Winchester, who formed a midfield three with Furman and Yousuff M’Changama. Despite a congested core, Stevenage were able to use their intelligence to constrict space on the Boundary Park pitch. Ok – so find some, you would say. It didn’t happen. And so Stevenage were able to organise themselves with ease.

It was also evident on Saturday that Robbie Simpson does not suit the lone striker role. Despite being generally ineffective, he did look slightly more threatening after the break when Dickov replaced Winchester with the powerful Matt Smith, allowing Simpson to drop into the hole behind Smith, who was instructed to lead the line and dominate aerially.

Ultimately, the performance as a whole was far from acceptable. To claim just a single point from two winnable home games is a dreadful return. The tempo that was set in the opening half against Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup has yet to be replicated. In truth it has become laboured, and this against sides such as Walsall, who are tipped to struggle.

If Walsall are supposed to find themselves towards the foot of the table, then Oldham, on this evidence, will not be far from them. Of course, the opening 10 or so games do not require fantastic results. As long as there is promise in the performance and style teams generally excel once they have gelled and formed strong partnerships. Results come eventually with good performances. Oldham might be waiting a while.

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You can follow me on Twitter 

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John Heitinga has admitted his frustrations in being left out of the Everton team and feels underprepared for international duty with Holland.

Heitinga was voted the Toffees’ player of the season last year, but has not started any of the matches so far and made just two substitute appearances against Manchester United and Aston Villa.

He is currently with the Dutch squad as they prepare to face Turkey in their opening World Cup qualifier.

He said: “I’ve felt better reporting for international duty. The Everton boss’ decisions feels bad.”

The 28-year-old was reportedly close to leaving Goodison Park in the summer after Fenerbahce made £5million bid for the player, but has stayed at the club to fight for his place.

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Manager, David Moyes has preferred the central defensive pairing of Sylvain Distin and Phil Jagielka so far this campaign.

“It’s a bullet I must bite every year. I was also left out for most of our early games in the two previous seasons”, Heitinga added.

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Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina continued his terrible start to the season with a third game-changing mistake which subsequently led to a goal in as many games in just over a week. With that in mind, should the club seriously be looking at replacing the 30-year-old Spanish international? Is he merely trading off his reputation now.

Firstly, let’s just say that this isn’t the Reina that we all have become accustomed to seeing over the years. Since arriving at Liverpool from Villarreal back in 2005, he went on to win the Golden Gloves award for most clean sheets in a season for three years running between 2006-08 and even if Rafael Benitez’s final season at the club, where the side finished a disappointing seventh in the league, he managed to keep 17 clean sheets in the league on his way to becoming the club’s Player of the Season. In short, he was not always this bad.

But ‘bad’ is really the only word you can use to describe him these days. When was the last time that he managed to pull off a save that impressed? He’s developed a worrying penchant for simply not diving for powerful shots aimed at goal, seemingly rooted to the spot rather than attempting to get anywhere near the effort on goal.

Against Manchester City, the way he flapped on the cross that led to Yaya Toure’s equaliser had many proclaiming that a lack of aerial ability has been a long-term problem of Reina’s, which to my knowledge at least, is a complete fallacy. At just over 6ft 2′ and with a heavy set frame, he’s never been bullied in his area and that mistake aside, it’s never been a weakness that’s been exploited that much, with English goalkeepers preferring to punch the ball out rather than catch it these days, with Joe Hart a prime example.

However, his shot-stopping ability, or rather lack thereof has become a major concern, whether he’s just too built or simply not agile enough, there’s not a lot that he seems to actually get to these days – a goalkeeper that doesn’t actually save all that much isn’t much use to anybody.

The most common theory that’s been thrown around is that he’s grown complacent due to a lack of competition over the years, which has included the likes of Brad Jones, Diego Cavalieri, Charles Itandje, Doni and Jerzy Dudek. The problem is that Reina knows, even if he makes these huge clangers, that he’s likely to be straight back in the starting line-up the following week. The lack of competition from these globe-trotting career number two’s simply doesn’t threaten his position at all, there is no competition for places whatsoever, rather an established hierarchy and pecking order, with Reina the undisputed number one.

There’s also the argument that the team’s decline has left him more exposed, a similar claim that can be made of Petr Cech’s own decline at Chelsea. The shift from being an established European outfit with the likes of Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and Sami Hyypia ahead of you to merely a top eight side has seen the decrease in quality throughout the side as they’ve lost the ability to dictate the tempo against the opposition, although this would then point to an alarming lack of concentration then on Reina’s part.

The final theory is that Reina has apparently been unhappy with the coaching methods that he’s been on the receiving end of at the club under the likes of Roy Hodgson and Kenny Dalglish. Reina saved 69% of the shots he faced in the league last season, which is also the average across the board in the top flight, which is down from his average across his eight-year association at the club of 78%.

Reina flourished in his first few seasons under goalkeeping coach Jose Ochoterana between 2005-7 and then Xavi Valero between 2007-10 when Benitez left the club. His performances under both Mike Kelly for a short period and now American coach John Achterberg has simply not been up to scratch and he average well under 70% shots to saves ratio under their tutelage.

The club were linked with a move for Wolves number two Dorus De Vries during the transfer window just gone, as they had an offer of £500k turned down (exposing the lack of funds around the club at the same time), but given that he had been Swansea’s established number one under Brendan Rodgers during their promotion campaign, there’s at least some belief that he may have genuinely challenged him for the right to start, given the high regard that he’s held in by the new boss.

Having just turned 30 years of age, this season represents a pivotal point in Reina’s Liverpool career; the dip in form has become a slide and it needs to be arrested soon otherwise there can be no going back. At the moment, a once world-class goalkeeper looks completely shorn of any confidence that he may have once had, even in a more ball-playing sweeper role similar to the one that he flourished in under Benitez.

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He’s an absolute liability right now and given the club’s strict budget, he remains one of their only valuable assets that they could potentially sell on at a reasonably large price. He’s guaranteed to stay between the sticks until the end of the season, but the cut-throat nature of the game surely dictates that you can’t deliver poor performances under three different managers over the space of three different seasons and expect to stay at the club. Without trying to sound too overly dramatic, his future certainly hangs in the balance and it’s a make or break season for him now.

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