This has to be one of the worst kept transfer secrets in Arsenal’s history. Everyone seems to know that Lukas Podolski is going to be an Arsenal player next season and it is now just a question of when not if.

Reports suggest that Arsenal and Cologne have agreed a fee of £10.9million for the striker and now Arsenal have to agree personal terms with Podolski.

Apparently Arsenal are offering him a staggering £120,000-a-week which will make him one of Arsenal’s highest ever players. A final deal is expected to be concluded next week and then we can virtually say Podolski is an Arsenal player.

I am looking forward to the arrival of Podolski next season. I hope that Van Persie will still be around to partner the 26-year-old German as that partnership has all the makings of being one of the best in the world. Signing a player like Podolski should send out a message that we mean business and get our big name players like Van Persie to stay.

As much have things have improved very nicely on the field for Arsenal and we look set to end the season off on a high note and in the Champions League for next season, we still have quite a bit of deadwood in the squad that we need to get rid of this summer.

A large chunk of these players have simply not been able to deliver the required high standard in an Arsenal shirt that we expected and they are on very high salaries which are costing us a fortune.

The first player who looks set to leave this summer and whom is costing us the most is Andrey Arshavn. The Russian has been very inconsistant during his time at Arsenal and it is time we cash in on him. It is reported that Arshavin is costing us £75,000 per week.

Next up would be Marouane Chamakh, who gets £60,000 per week. The striker has simply not cut it. I believe he is not a bad player at all but our style of player is not suited to him. Send him to a long ball team like Stoke and Blackburn and I am sure you will see the best in him.

Sebastien Squillaci, Nicklas Bendtner, Denilson and Carlos Vela, are paid £50,000 per week, and they all should be sold this summer as I can not see them playing an important role in the side next season.

Goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, who is on £60,000 per week, will definitely go in the summer when his current deal expires.

The last player is a bit of a tough call, Park Chu-Young only joined Arsenal this season and he has not gotten in much game time. I am not sure whether Wenger still believes in him or he will be ready to cut his loses and sell the South Korean in the summer in a bid to cut the wage bill as Park is on a £40,000 per week deal.

The old Arsenal back five is highly regarded by many as one of the best ever in Premier League history, Seaman, Dixon, Adams, Bould/Keown and Winterburn, all are icons of the club and much of Arsenal’s success in the 90s and early 2000′s was down to the form of them. Since then for the most part Arsenal’s defence has been the weak link in the team and has been the subject of much criticism. Since the last member of the back five retired, I can only name literally 4/5 players who can be considered a success, they are Lehmann, Toure, Campbell, Cole and to an extent Clichy (although I did think he was over-rated and relied on his pace too much rather than his defensive awareness, also he was prone to costly mistakes I.E giving away the last minute penalty at Birmingham in 2008). Too many players have come in and failed to make the grade Almunia, Squiallaci, Cygan, Sendoros and of course Stepanov’s to name but a few.

But whisper it quietly Arsenal are looking like they have the makings of a very good defence, since the start of February Arsenal have only conceded 6 goals in 8 games (Premier League only) one of them was an own goal and another a penalty, in our 3 League games in January we conceded 7 in 3. Arsenal’s run has coincided with the return of our first choice back five. The players are:
Wojciech Szczesny- At 21 Szczesny is already an excellent goalkeeper, combining a good shot stopper and overall command of his penalty area Szczesny has the potential to be one of the best in the world, barring injury or a dramatic loss in form. Although prone to a couple of bad mistakes this can easily be down to inexperience.

Bacary Sagna- The best right back in the Premiership hands down, solid defensively and loves combining with Walcott down the right and has the perfect balance between defence and attack and never afraid to put a challenge in.

Laurent Koscielny- I hated Kos last season, I thought he was another Cygan, too slow often caught out position wise and was too lightweight in defence. This year he has been a completely different player, he’s looked solid in the centre has improved on his positioning and loves to get stuck in and bully the opposition forwards.

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Arsenal’s left-back Kieran Gibbs has come out and said that he think team mate Theo Walcott is the best winger in the country.

“For me, yes [he is the best winger in the country],” said the left-back. “Put it this way, I wouldn’t like to be coming up against him.

“I looked up to him quite a lot when he first came to the club, it is a pleasure and a joy to play with him. He is an outstanding player.

“He is one of my best friends and a top boy. He is a model pro, takes his work really seriously and is a really nice guy.”

Do you agree with Gibbs?

With some people saying that this deal is already sealed, we have heard from Arsene Wenger and he mentions nothing about a deal being done with regards to Arsenal signing German international striker Lukas Podolski.

The Arsenal boss has been a firm admirer for the 2010 World Cup star and has said he would love him to join Arsenal.

“Yes [we want Podolski],” said Wenger.

“We want to add some offensive strikers, because many times people say we rely too much on Van Persie, which is true, but if we can find world-class players, we will [challenge for the title].”

It is great to hear Wenger admitting his interest in such a good striker and also seeing that we can not rely too much on Robin van Persie. I would hate to think where we would be this season of Van Persie was injured as he normally is!

So Arsenal have turned the corner, at the time of writing we are on a run of 6 games unbeaten in the league, (including wins at Anfield and a severe footballing lesson to the Spuds) the phenomenal 2nd leg performance against Milan and of course the record breaking 4 come from behind victories in a row. It’s easy to say crisis? What crisis?? But in my opinion this is the same old Arsenal.

We always seem to be more relaxed and care free when there’s no silverwear to play for, although finishing above Spurs this season would be just as good seeming how a couple of months ago our friends from the seven sisters were throwing all sorts of abuse and delusional s*** about how the balance in power was shifting in North London. The fact that its taken the criticism of a high percentage of Gunners fans, newspapers and ex-professionals for Arsenal to start playing like a team this season is frustrating, in a way this is a positive point, the performances over the last few games have been genuinely excellent and suddenly we look like a team who is up for a fight and can beat anyone, players like RVP, TV, and Koscielny have stepped up and look like leaders and what the f**k has happened to Rosicky, for the best part of 5 years he has been so infuriatingly average its a wonder he got any where near the subs bench let alone the pitch, but all of a sudden hes done a complete 180 and turned into a player who is absolutely owning the centre of the park and playing like hes 10 years younger. He’s been that good i even had to google whether he had a twin and arsenal had signed him up on the quiet. So the criticism has worked and the players have obviously listened But Why oh why can we not do it when it matters. We just seem to lack that extra bit of winning mentality and buckle under the pressure.

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It is not every day that you hear Arsene Wenger commenting about another teams player that he is interested in signing: usually you get nothing at all out of our manager when it comes to new player signings.

Arsene has come out and commented about Montpellier’s 22-year-old Moroccan midfielder Younes Belhanda.

Wenger said in The Sun: “I know Younes well and like him a lot.

“But I don’t want to cause problems. Only Montpellier can decide where he goes to.”

Now this player has been dubbed a similar type of player to Robert Pires but do we need another player like that considering we have the likes of Walcott, Chamberlain and Gervinho who can play out wide?

With speculation growing rife around the future of Robin van Persie and he apparent move to Manchester City in the summer, this is all reminding me of the Cesc Fabregas saga all over again. We all know how the Fabregas story ended, he left for Barcelona, but will the same happen to our current captain?

According to Dutch legend Marci van Basten, Arsenal can hold onto Van Persie if they buy four new players.

This makes a lot of sense to me, Arsenal need to go out this summer and but some quality players. No more of this Wenger rubbish of not wanting to spend money! Arsenal have the money to spend and Wenger should spend it or else I feel Wenger himself should leave and we bring in a manager who is willing to spend money so that we become successful!

The four players that Van Basten has identified as convincing Van Persie to stay are Ajax defender Jan Vertongen, Germany internationals Lukas Podolski and Mario Goetze, and Athletico Bilbao’s midfielder Javier Martinez.

These four new players would potentially cost Arsenal in the region of £65million which is the kind of money we need to be spending to win and challenge for titles.

Jan Vertongen is the ideal defender to bring in as he is so versatile. He can play anywhere across the backline and even as a holding midfielder. We know how much Wenger likes versatile players so I do not see why he should not spend on the Belgium international who is close friends with Thomas Vermaelen and we all know how well Vermaelen turned out for Arsenal.

Lukas Podolski is being reported in some circles as already agreeing to sign for Arsenal this summer. We have relied too much on Van Persie for goals this season and having another top class striker like Podolski alongside Van Persie is just what we need.

Scoring goals may not be a problem for Arsenal next season with Van Persie and Podolski leading the line but we will need someone to come in and create opportunities for him, who better than Borussia Dortmund’s attacking midfielder Mario Goetze who could cost £20million. That may be a lot of money for Wenger to spend on one player but he is one of the hottest prospects in the game today.

And the final piece of the puzzle is a hard man in midfield. We have Alex Song but we need someone else with the kind of steal but can also pass the ball well. Spanish midfielder Javier Martinez from Athletico Bilbao is the right player according to Marco van Basten. A fee of £20million may also be required to prize this 23-year-old to Arsenal.

What do you think of these four players? Ate those what we need to keep Van Persie at the club and for us to be able to challenge for honours?

Just as things were starting to look up for Arsenal on the field, there are reports off the field that are saying Robin van Persie has agreed to join Manchester City in the summer for a whopping £210k-a-week!

The Sunday Times are the ones running this story saying that the Arsenal captain is set to become the highest paid player in the league by completing the deal.

Van Persie is out of contract next summer and with one year left on his deal and him not yet signing a new contract to stay in London, Arsenal may be ready to cash in on him for a big fee this summer.

There is no doubt that Van Persie has been our best player this season and it would be great if we can hold onto him for next season and beyond and buy some quality players to boost the club. It looks like we will be in the Champions League next season and this will be a major attraction to bring in some of the best talent in Europe.

But could we be faced with another Fabregas situation where the player himself does not want to leave and we stand to lose him for free?

I say that Wenger should force Van Persie to stay for next season even if we stand losing him for free next summer. What do you think?

With Arsenal’s continued problem with our injured defender, Arsene Wenger has revealed that he may dip into the transfer market to bring someone in but he has made it clear that we should not expect any big name signings and they are not available and will not be sold by their clubs.

Rather Wenger will look at bringing in someone who is good and experienced but can not get a game at their current club or he will get in a young player no one knows about, and we all know how good Wenger is at finding these young talents.

“At the moment we are exploring potential situations we can take advantage of but there is nothing concrete,” Wenger told Arsenal Player.

“Hopefully the players will come back very quickly now. With Carl Jenkinson we had very good news on his scan and he is starting to practice again, we have Thomas Vermaelen who is the first to come back, Bacary Sagna is evolving well and Santos is doing well too. Let’s hope they all come back quickly.

“All over the world we have our eyes and we look for good [players].

“It is very simple in a situation like that. You might take a player who doesn’t play at all somewhere, who is not necessarily fit quicker than a player who is injured. Or you take a young, potential player who has not made it somewhere.

“A player who plays anywhere in the world at the moment will not be available on loan, it doesn’t exist. It can only be a guy who doesn’t play or a promising player who has not yet made it completely who you could take advantage of.

“That is why it is not an easy situation. You have to consider that a guy who has not played for two months is not necessarily back quicker than Bacary Sagna or another player who is just coming back from injury.”