The Arsenal and Germany striker Lukas Podolski has just one year left on his current contract with the Gunners and as he did not cost us too much when we signed him from Cologne three years ago we will not be looking for much of a transfer fee.
But one potential sale of the out of form striker, to the Turkish club Galatasaray, has already fallen through and according to a report by The Mirror, this is not good news. The paper reports that our hopes of completing the transfer of Jackson Martinez from Porto is dependent on Arsene Wenger being able to clear some of the other strikers from the club.
Joel Campbell is one but the Costa Rican youngster is wanted by a couple of clubs in La Liga and should not be hard to move on. Yaya Sanogo is another but his wages are not a heavy burden and another loan deal could easily be arranged.
Podolski, on the other hand, is still one of the top wage earners at Arsenal and that is why he could be the key to Wenger getting the transfer of the prolific Colombian international finalised. The paper suggests that it is the money that would come from the sale of our strikers that would make the difference but Jackson is going to cost less than £25 million and we have that and more in the bank.
Is this another example of how our strict wage structure holds us back in the transfer market?