Continuing the ever increasing German presence evolving at Arsenal, the London club are now reportedly interested in Maximilian Arnold.

The 19 year old German has been playing for Bundesliga side Wolfsburg, as well as the national under-21 side. He has played at every age group possible for Germany from Under 16s to Under 21s.

With a buy-out clause of close to £8m it remains to be seen whether Wenger would be willing to fork out that much money for a player who has only 14 appearances in the Bundesliga.

If Arnold were to sign, he would add to the cohort of Germans already at the club, including: Mesut Ozil, Per Mertesacker, Lukas Podolski, Serge Gnabry, Gideon Zelalem and Tomas Eisfeld. Somewhat reminiscent of the French connections that were present during Wenger’s most successful era running the club.

German International Outgoing?

As reports of Arsenal signing another young German Bundesliga star, Julian Draxler, were heating up over the January transfer , so were those claiming that Lukas Podolski may be headed in the other direction as part of the deal.

The Arsenal man has rubbished these claims in German magazine Bild, stating that there was “absolutely no truth in it”, and that Wenger ensured him that he still has Podolski in his plans.

He also spoke about his regret of leaving Bayern Munich in 2009 (link in German). Podolski is said to have felt like he would have been able to break into the first team if he had persevered rather than departing back to his former club, who subsequently got relegated that season, allowing for his transfer to the Emirates in 2012.

Arsenal face the European champions in one week’s time, which brings up the prospect of Podolski facing the club he played for from 2006-2009, and scored against in the home leg of last year’s Champions League tie.

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