German international Per Mertesacker says that he is disappointed that Arsenal did not get the best out of his international teammate, Lukas Podolski.
After having originally joined Arsenal for around £ 10 million, the striker has been sold for only around £ 1.75 million to Turkish club Galatasaray. After failing to win the title last season, the Turkish club has also seen archrivals Fenerbahce make key signings from the Premier League like Robin van Persie and Nani. Podolski will be the key player for Galatasaray in the coming campaign along with Wesley Sneijder.
Even though this move is likely to represent more first-team opportunities for Podolski, the striker was underutilised at the Emirates stadium according to his international teammate Mertesacker. Podolski was expected to make a huge impact when he initially joined from Cologne. Even though he had previously failed at a big club like Bayern Munich, the move overseas would rekindle him according to many. However, this never happened and Podolski even failed to establish himself as the backup for Olivier Giroud. Despite having the Frenchman injured for most of last season, Podolski went out on loan to Inter Milan.
However, this loan spell with the Italian club was not successful either. Mertesacker says that he has never seen a quality left foot like that of Podolski, who scored some magical goals at Arsenal.“It is a shame to lose Lukas as a team-mate. His left foot is a weapon which I did not see with many players. On his day, he can still make the difference. I wish him good luck in Turkey,” said Mertesacker. A number of other big names like Samuel Eto’o, Mario Gomez, and van Persie have moved to the Turkish league in the summer. It is certainly gaining a lot of prominence amongst players.