Tuesday, December 10, 2024

Confirmed: Laurent Koscielny joins Bordeaux

Laurent Koscielny has left Arsenal for Bordeaux in a deal worth around €5m.

The former captain’s relationship with the club broke down this summer over a contractual dispute, with the 33 year old refusing to go on the summer tour of the USA.

Despite efforts from Unai Emery and Raul Sanllehi, there was no reconciliation, and the defender’s desire to go back to France to see out his career won out.

It’s a shame that it has ended the way it has, because a popular player who has given a lot to Arsenal is leaving under a cloud. His reputation among fans has been badly damaged, and it does overshadow the positives aspects of his nine year stay in North London.

Since joining in 2010, he made 353 appearances for the Gunners, scoring 27 goals and making 5 assists. He picked up 47 yellow cards and 6 red cards.

The Frenchman had a habit of scoring important goals too, including a couple of final day winners against West Brom and Newcastle which saw us qualify for the Champions League at the expense of Sp*rs – as well as an equaliser in the 2014 FA Cup final against Hull after we’d fallen 2-0 behind early on.

Like most players he had his ups and downs, but over the duration of his Arsenal career there were far more positives than negatives. His partnership with Per Mertesacker was about the best we’ve had in a long time, and over the years he’s been paired with some players who would make life challenging, to say the least.

Fans generally appreciated his whole-hearted approach, and even last season after coming back from a terrible Achilles injury, he was our best central defender.

Without defending his behaviour in any way, it’s sad that it has ended so acrimoniously.

An Arsenal statement this afternoon read:

Laurent, who started his career in the French second division at Guingamp in 2004, has played 51 matches for France and was entering the final year of his current contract with us. We decided to sanction his move to Bordeaux once we agreed acceptable transfer terms.

We thank Laurent for his contribution to the club and wish him all the best for the future.

The club now have to replace him, with not a great deal of time left in this transfer window.

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Viva la prof

Bon voyage

H2k

He wants his own song
He wants his own songggg
Laurent Koscielny, now he has gone.

IamaGoober

No doubt that the way he’s ended up leaving the club has lacked a lot of class on all sides (mainly his) but we didn’t cover ourselves in glory either by firstly; allowing this situation to arise in the first place. We knew he wanted to leave. We should have looked to secure a deal to move him on as soon as the window opened. Secondly; when Koscielny refused to travel with the squad to the US, we should have kept that all in house, putting his absence down as an injury (or whatever else). We shouldn’t have been airing… Read more »

IamaGoober

‘faith

VAR will solve the problem

Sad the way you are leaving. It doesn’t have to be like this. Just say “sorry” and we will forgive u, Captain! I know I want to.

SarcasmB0t

Bon riddance

Mpls

C’est la vie.

Red-Sky

yeah… thank you and good luck.

Kampala gooner

Played football as a kid and of course u could help but wonder how itmust feel being in the red and white.,! Ummmm. Sorry but you really shit on that special feeling.

NairoGunner89

What a terrible manner to part ways.

kaius

Yeah and aside from that, the sad thing about that beautiful generation of players who’ve now gone, from Koscielny to Cazorla to Rosicky, is that they should’ve won a title.

Anyway, good luck Lolo.

Richie

He joins the ‘Legends But We’re Still Pissed Off At You’ club with Ashley Cole, Alexis Sanchez, Nicolas Anelka.

btw

Cesc?

Nikhil Agarwal

No way. I strongly disagree. He can’t be put in the same category as Cashley Cole. We don’t what happened and while a bitter taste is left in the mouth by his acrimonious departure, clubbing him and Cashley together is extremely disrespectful to Koss.

Nikhil Agarwal

*know

Twatsloch

I’d add Sanchez to that category. Entitled little primarona who left for big money and a prestige club where he became shit.

I expect Kos to be an asset to Bordeaux for however long he’ll be with them. No way is he in the same category as that prick Sanchez.

Dave Cee

Ashley was a great player for us no matter what the history books say

Sir Henry Norris' Brown Envelope

I don’t think I ever recovered from his departure, big loss

Thierry Bergkamp

At least Cole was a great player for us

John C

None of those players listed are legends

Clockendrider

Legends?

Thierry Bergkamp

Koscielny, Sanchez and Anelka, legends. Really?

Wezza

Sanchez, Anelka? legends?

SFGiants

Don’t forget Samir Nasrat.

NairoGunner89

Just seen his unveiling video. I have been trying to see this from the angle if Koscielny. I have maintained that his legend status should not be in question but that unveiling video was cheap, daft and disrespectful to more than just the club administration. As a fan, that truly hurts.

Twatsloch

Do you have a link to that video?

Twatsloch

Watched it now and I have to agree with NairoGunner89 that it’s a pretty cheap and disrespectful. That kind of display should be beneath him. Poor taste!

Glocken

I’m sorry but there is no way that Koscielny is a ‘legend’.

He served the club well for a long time, I’ll give him that & I’m appreciative of his efforts but he’s not in the same league as McClintock, Rice, Adams, Bould, O’Leary or Sol.

A good servant, that’s it.

Ric

Kind of want to thumbs up but you missed so many people who should be in the legends category I’m not sure

Dave M

Yeah wished I didn’t see that. Another mercenary maggot. I really liked him, but if he can’t even have the respect to the fans that have still literally been defending him then fuk him. Pro sports… Not even sure why we do it to ourselves when it’s full of these over glorified over paid dogs.

Thierry Bergkamp

Fuck him! That’s what I say

xxxrob

Does it really hurt that bad? Maybe I am just a cold bastard but I literally watched it, shrugged and kept scrolling.

Dave M

The only people that give a shit about the shirt are the fans. What he did doesn’t affect management. Fans loved kozzer (I DID) so he did the one thing he could to fully disrespect the fans and that is disrespecting the shirt that made his career and the fans that lauded him for it. Pathetic, but really why expect more from pro football? Money trashed this game years ago, just another moment that makes me question why I still care at all for this game. Might check on the women’s team again…

Reality check

I wish he had more class. Forget what the club said or did, what about the fans – do they mean nothing. 9 years and you throw it all away, just like that. Fans are letting it go because he’s past his best. If he had tried something like this a few years ago, when he still had some value and we were in a situation that we are in – the perception would’ve been much different. In any case, the club has shown on Arsenal.com how they will remember him. Personally, if he’s not bothered about his legacy, why… Read more »

Dave M

Exactly

Goober Sam

What a shame it ended this way, good riddance

Maul Person

Still don’t know if it was the club’s fault or his so such a sentiment is surely premature.

It Is What It Is

Going on history, I think the club would be at fault.
I think there was a gentleman’s agreement with a club representative and, despite a change in hierarchy, Kos has met his end.
I know he hasn’t moved for money or glory.

Mekus

I’m not sure, but I suspect that his true allegiance and loyalty was more with the Prof (Wenger) than with Arsenal as a club. I mean bearing in mind that comment about wanting to leave pre-world cup after Wenger left. My thoughts, though I might be wrong. Whend/if he eventually tells his own side of the story, we’ll know much better. Till then, best wishes Kosc.

Reality check

“I know he hasn’t moved for money or glory”.

Surely not for glory but money, not so sure. If he goes for free, he gets a bigger pay check. What do you think he kicked up all this fuss for..

Wezza

Sounds like Gazidis shit to me

Cacho

Koscielny is a professional and playing for Arsenal was a job for him. As much as we like to think of him embodying the club, and to some degree he did, there’s a disconnect between fans and someone who is doing a job. The whole thing stinks, but important to remember most players never have the connection we do to the club. If they do great, but most don’t and that’s fine. And they’re entitled to seek whatever employment they like. He owes us or Arsenal precisely nothing.

goonero

What “connection” do you have to the club? Your a fan sure, but what meaningful contribution have you made to Arsenal? You think you’ve somehow got a deeper or more meaningful connection with the club than Koscielny? The way you’ve just decided that Koscielny has absolutely no regard for the club, good lord some of you are real specimens.

Cacho

Good job completely misunderstanding my comment. My point is that *most* players (I have no clue how Kos feels about Arsenal) don’t have the emotional connection to the clubs they play for that we like to think they do. It’s a harsh reality, but a reality I think a lot of fans would do well to acknowledge. This has been confirmed time and time again by players, usually when under intense pressure from the fans. So yes it is painful that Kos is leaving, he’s been our captain and stalwart for nearly 10 years. You’d like to think he wants… Read more »

Thomas b

Players have contracts, what they do after fulfilling them is up to themselves. In this case he had one year left, and he refused to do his job, that’s not OK.
We have a lot to thank Kos for, but so does he.
He became a top footballer at our club, and earned a lot of money. Leaving this way ruined his legacy.

Mekus

Similar to the point I was trying to make. Well said.

Lerpy

Well, he did owe us another year of service.

Clockendrider

And we owe him nothing in return. Ta ta.

David

Exactly right! If he got word from arsenal that he could leave at the end of last season, new hierarchy or not, you have to honour the promise. I have no bad feelings towards him, quite the contrary, I think he is the best CB we have had in the last 10+ years and have massive respect and admiration for him. He captained us on the field and won trophy’s for us, put his body on the line quite literally with his persistent Achilles problems which requires daily treatment and still he plays 3 game in a week, no complaints,… Read more »

Fabulous

The f**k is wrong with some people though. 9 years worth of service – to which he gave 100% almost every game, remember multiple games when he looks the only one who cares? And you’re getting all salty because he refused to travel for a pre-season tour?

This is exactly why the media and pundits alike love having a go at us. Small sh*t like this gets us all worked up and having a reaction – when really if you take a bit of perspective it isn’t that bad at all.

kaius

No, you’ve got it backwards.

It’s precisely because he built such a good reputation at the club, that he was the last person any of us expected this BS from. That’s what the reaction is about.

It’s not a “small” issue when a player downs tools to force a move away. If Reiss Nelson or someone like Pepe does it next summer to force a move to Barca you’ll understand why it’s dangerous to encourage this kind of behaviour from players.

Maul Person

And what you wrote in your first paragraph is exactly why there’s vvery likely more to it than simply Koscielny just deciding to be disrespectful to the club. Precisely because of how he has such a good reputation around the club. Thats why I, and I only speak for myself, am waiting to see more, if or when it comes out. In relation to your second paragraph, there are WAY too many examples of players in the past few seasons from a multitude of clubs in all leagues who have set the precedent for young players to “upgrade” their club… Read more »

kaius

You think Koscielny set a good example for all the academy graduates we just promoted to the first team and who went on the US tour?

What some of you really want is for some snippet of info to come out that lets you put 100% of the blame on the the club. You’re entitled to wait for Koscielny’s big interview in L’Equipe or whatever.

Personally, I have a lot of respect for people who love Koscielny but aren’t afraid to condemn his unprofessionalism.

Maul Person

Do I think Kos was unprofessional? Yes. What I am arguing is that I don’t know – none of us knows – if he was provoked. Is there some level of justification to his decision and behaviour? It’s not about wanting to blame the club but about not wanting to rush to judgement. I don’t know about you but I’d rather watch, listen, and THEN respond. If he’s in the wrong, I’ll be right there saying it. Did he set a good example? I don’t know. It goes to whether he was justified. If not, no he didn’t. If he… Read more »

kaius

Once you’ve acknowledged that what he did was unprofessional, what else is there to argue about?

Aaron Ramsey just gave us a perfect example of how to leave a club while conducting yourself with dignity. Instead Koscielny threw his rep away, and no good reason will come out that justifies it.

Maul Person

Again, you just seem to want to be mad at Kos. Reaction and justification are related but different. Was Kos justified in wanting to leave (based on some form of gentleman’s agreement)? How he reacted to the club saying “no” (if such an agreement was in place) was what makes it look unprofessional. I’m man enough to acknowledge that there are layers to people’s character and behaviour. Have you never had an argument with your missus (assuming you are a man and straight) where you’ve legitimately been in the right about something but because she pushes you, you lash out?… Read more »

kaius

Don’t be so juvenile. I wrote ‘good luck’ to Lolo in my first comment on this thread.

He may have acted badly, but we can condemn his actions and still wish him well. Cheers for the debate

Maul Person

Juvenile for asking you consider a less binary approach? I don’t think so. For the record, I don’t follow all your posts. In this particular thread of comments, you haven’t shown much of this wellwishing.

Thierry Bergkamp

Who cares

Rob67

Actually – as Arsenal fans we should.

The manner of his exit was very sad and did not reflect well on anyone. But football is a game, now run wholly by and for the players. That is the fact of it.

The Clubs…and the ‘fans’….’supporters’….are a distant consideration.

Compared to a lot, Kos’ conducted himself well. He was one of Wenger’s best later signings and gave his all, when he could. Unlike a lot of others who hid.

Sad to see him go………like this.

But there it is.

Onwards and upwards. ‘Forza Arsenal’….

John C

It doesn’t reflect well on Koscielny no one else.

As far as we know only he reneged on his contractual obligation, not the club. If he wanted to leave he should have put in a transfer request not refuse to play!

Eternal Titi Berg Pat Nostalgia

This disqualifies him for even being loosely called legend and he shouldn’t even play in so-called legend games to collect money for hospitals. Not even games where Aliadiere shows up as a legend.

John C

Yeah!!

Everyone knows that the real mark of a club legend!!

Maul Person

Until we know more, how can you say it only reflects poorly on him? What would you say if it turns out that the club DID give assurances that they reneged on?

I’m not saying he’s innocent or guilty and that’s my point. We know too little right now.

John C

You’re making assumptions to get to that conclusion. Personally i don’t care why he wanted to leave, as i don’t think it matters but there’s a correct way to conduct yourself, which clearly he hasn’t done. He could have made a public statement regarding his desire to leave, still go on tour and put it back on the club but he chose not to play, which can’t be defended. And I also don’t buy the line that he physically can’t do it anymore and has risked his health for the club, he’s not retiring and obviously feels he has another… Read more »

assistantref

Shame this couldn’t have been worked out behind the scenes. 5 million is a perfectly respectable fee if that’s what we’re getting, would have been no reason for all the unpleasantness.

Kebabface

This sums it up nicely

Jarghs

Two thumbs up

Glocken

Good luck to him. It’s a shame he left under a cloud but after some time passes he’ll be rightly appreciated.

The winner against Newcastle to get us in the top four (it’s 1-1 at St James Park, lol) and the equaliser against Hull in the 2013 FA Cup final, he scored some big goals for us and has been an important part of the squad for nearly a decade.

I wish him the best but the manner of his departure leaves a lot to be desired.

PolyEmery

Hear, hear.

Spanish Gooner

To everybody saying we should have let him go for free: that’s £4.5m To add on to any deals for his replacements. So happy we’re run like a professional organisation now

BW9

We really need to bring at least one defender in. Even if it’s just Tierney, have Monreal play CB if necessary. But we really need bodies at the back.

Henkamp

Monreal as a CB in a back four is crap — especially now that age has slowed his pace even more.

Santori

That is a lousy solution. Monreal cannot play Cback unless its a back 3 and even so. You’re better off keeping Mustafi at that rate. Too many fans do not live in reality. Tierney would be a good addition but we can’t afford him now without compromise to the priority needs at Cback. Rb can also frankly wait. AMN will improve. These fans just want quick fixes rather than substantive change and they live in a fantasy world. Reality is our immediate need is (has been for a while) at Cback and we don’t just want any other Cback to… Read more »

PolyEmery

In my team, the older you are, the further back you play!

Dan

My favorite gunner for the better part of the last 9 years, shame it had to ebd like this but I hope he can still be fondly remembered.

Dan

End* fat fingers

RoyalT

Never reached his full potential with the injuries

ER1

That’s Walcott… wrong article and wrong year

SarcasmB0t

To be fair, that comment could be generically applied to virtually every single player from the 2006-2014 era, with the exception of Cesc and maybe Bendtner (whose potential was nowhere near as high as most of his strikes).

Martin

Of course he did. He wasn’t an injury prone player and for 7 years was one of the best centre halves in the country. He also played 51 times for his country

locksley444

Not the manner I’d have liked to see him depart. After Rosicky and Santi leaving with injuries, I was hoping to see him retire with us and get a testimonial. Club legend in my book.

Thierry Walcott

Kos the boss! Farewell! I will remember him for the fond memories…

Gman

Tha

Milo

Any realistic idea’s on who we should get to replaxe him?

Jack

Sol Campbell

Saurabh singh

Samba deal is still on?

Goatee_of_Pires

Jagielka surely.

Kostas

Evans?

Guendouzi's Bald Patch

Solomon Kalou is currently having a medical

Pakgooner

Best of luck

Cagooner

Could have been a legend, but I don’t like his behavior this summer. Good riddens!!

btw

Riddance, unless that is a phonetic spelling from Yosemite Sam

Rich

This gives Chambers a real opportunity to stake a claim. He’s a bit too slow over the first few metres, and also lacking in agility, but he’s generally decent enough, and looks to have improved in the air, hopefully the pace and aggression of Sokratis will make for a good combination. There’s talk we’re in for a loan for Coutinho? If there’s any truth to that? Then it’ll be the signing of the summer. Emery said last Dec/Jan “I need wingers” He’s also spoke about investing in defenders on a couple of occasions. If you’d offered me Coutinho + Ceballos… Read more »

Emyrates

Pepe is the signing of the season. Coutinho is overrated.

Don Cazorleone

Supposedly the scum are in for coutinho as well, and are favourites according to Sky.
Overrated or not… that’d sting.

Magneto

Thank you Laurent Koscielny for your contribution to the Arsenal, and best wishes for the rest of your career.

In my view, Koscielny was one of Arsene’s best ever signings.

Nikhil Agarwal

Better than Henry?Really?

Fabulous

Mate you need to learn what “one of” means

DB10s Air Miles

But there is a very long list of players before I reach Kos.
Anelka, Henry, Pires, Freddy, Viera, Sol, Gilberto etc etc……I’ll stop now. Kos was a great player though.

Laca-Sead

Au revoir mon ami! Oh Captain my captain! Not the best way to say goodbye but he is a true Arsenal legend.

GoonerUpNorth

Is he fuck an Arsenal legend.

Chamakhyungpark

why not?

GoonerUpNorth

Don’t get me wrong, he was a pretty good defender a few years ago but never the sort of player who dragged the team to victories. I remember him making loads of silly mistakes which led to us conceding goals. Wouldn’t put him in the same bracket as players like Adam’s, Vieira, Henry, Wright, Bergkamp et AL. Those players are what I’d call club legends.

Chamakhyungpark

Yeh sure, he isn’t in that Caliber. Still has been one of our best and committed players over the last 9 years and won three FA Cups. I Just don’t really think that skipping pre-season friendly matches in order to push for a move back home at the age of 33 with dodgy achilles really warrants the level of betrayal that some people are suggesting. Bracketing him with the likes of Cole, Nasri, Van Persie who left us in their prime to join direct rivals stung, but all I can say is thanks for being a class act Kos.

My name is Jeff

I think as time passes he will be remembered fondly as a player who gave his all for the club when he was on the pitch. The goal against Hull was a prime example as he sacrificed himself to get that goal in before being run through. Without that, Ramsey’s goal doesn’t happen and maybe we would still be in a trophy-less drought.

Pooner

Lots of love for Kos for the FA Cup final goal alone. Such a shame he leaves under a cloud. More broadly, it’s sad that yet another of our better players leaves in such a way…

Amusa

Scored twice in consecutive seasons to get us in the CL. Scored the equalizer to get us our first trophy in years.
Stayed when Barca and co wanted him and when everyone was abandoning ship.
Will always be a hero for me.

Arsenalfanman

We’ll forgive him when he comes back as backroom staff in 5 years.

Drew

Feel bad about how it ended but the lad gave almost everything for Arsenal. Yes the last few months are not befitting of our club captain but he has played through pain for the cause time and again. Should be fondly remembered in my opinion, but soured by his actions of late.

Dastardlydick

We put too much of a burden on him. He was playing through a lot of pain but did so as there were no other quality CBs to call upon. He put his body on the line. It shouldn’t have been that way if the club had invested in a quality centre back earlier. Disappointing that he behaved as he did. Not happy with the manner of his departure but will always be grateful to him. A class player.

Okechukwu Jude

Thanks for your time. This is a blessing in disguise because we have to buy a centre back now for sure. One who actually wants to be with us.

Dastardlydick

We can hope…..

GoonerMonkey

We might get Courtinho from Barca on loan. He’s a great defender…

Maul Person

Yes but we have to keep Mustafi too…!

Amusa

And don’t forget he was our best CB since the invinicbles

Richie

Gallas was better.

DBMÖ10

I’d argue it was our head of academy

Red-Sky

Per.

loose_cannon

If we’re being honest, that’s not saying much. But I did rate Vermaelen for the most part.

Okechukwu Jude

Metersacker was our best defender. Cool head every time. His lack of pace only got d better of him on very few occasions.

Olly

So sad to see Kos leave like this. I hope we’ll one day find out what really happened. No matter what though, I’ll always have fond memories of his time at Arsenal, and in time I hope we’ll be able to give him the proper send-off he deserves.

Giuseppe Hovno

So how do we appraise the Koscielny era? Onwards and upwards hopefully…

Hi-brid

Sad ending but, as you say, we don’t know the full story. To judge the facts, he was a fully committed and excellent player for us and I won’t ever forget the cup final equaliser.

Richie

Yes it’s possible he moved back to France for family reasons. Nobody can berate a man for that.

GoonerMonkey

How very sad that it’s ended like this. He was always a favourite of mine. I wonder what must have happened for it to come to this? But now it’s over to the recruitment team to use the cash we have available + any extra generated by sales and sell-on-clauses. My dream would be a solid Centre Half and a Full Back. But with Wolves, Leicester, Sp*ds… etc all looking for defenders too, it’s a highly inflated market. Plus teams know we’re desperate. Not the best situation to be in. But lets see if we can pull it out of… Read more »

TCGNR

Why are Spuds looking at defenders? Their back line – though not an impenetrable force of defensive mastery by any means – is twice as good as ours and got them to the UCL final. I’d feel fairly secure with Toby and Jan in the back, personally, at least for now.

Tapps

They have got Foyth, though…….

GoonerMonkey

It’s just that they’re getting on a bit in age and one of them might be out of contract soon. I think… I don’t really keep track of what they’re up to.

My Cousin Vinai

Apart from the gentleman’s agreement, according to The Orn sounds like Emery had plans to not just use him, but use him quite a lot, and apparently Kos wasn’t happy with how he was handled last season and seems Emery wanted more of the same and clearly Kos didn’t want that. Can’t blame him because it’s easy for fans to forget his injury was caused by arsenal mis-handling and overusing him, when he first had the tendintitis yet we kept playing him with cortisol injections and went into a new season with just 3CBs. Shame it’s come to this, but… Read more »

Jude

Just like that, my Cyborg is gone… Au’revoir Mon Ami. Definitely a club legend for me. Would have preferred a testimonial game for him though… Good piece of business by the club to get €5 Million for him as well. He will be missed for sure.

Upamenco just moved from an option to a necessity…

COYG!!!

Goonereality

The fee was about as much as we could expect for a 33 year old player with injury problems. It will be interesting to see how many games he actually manages to play for Bordeaux. I hope that he would have got a testimonial in other circumstances.

Latest reports suggest no bid was made for Upamenco apparently, and time is running out. Doesn’t mean we won’t bring in a centre back but it will be a (very) close run thing.

loose_cannon

I’m just relieved we got a fee for him, the idea of letting our contracted club captain leave for free due to player power made me a little sick. Thanks for the memories Kos, odd that you didn’t ask to be released while we paid you during your injuries but there you go. A good player for us but nothing more. Time to move on.

momozemio

On a side note, french L’Equipe wrote one hour ago that Arsenal was about to welcome Couthino on loan… which sounds crazy…

Dave

sounds even crazier when we need defense reinforcements more than attack reinforcements…Still hoping we can get a CB and maybe Tierney (now or in January, or get some sort of pre agreement to let us get him in January, I don’t know, something!). Maybe even a RB!

Goonereality

Initial reports a few days ago suggested a) the loan fee for one season would be around £27 million and b) he wanted to stay at Barca anyway, or at least not come to us. Given our desperate need for a proven centre back, spending anything like that kind of dosh on Couthino seems, to use the technical term, completely bonkers!

Santori

We won’t have the money for both.

CBack (a truly good one) will cost.

Dave

For one I’m sad to see him go. Was still one of our best (if not the best) defender we had. I won’t have ill thoughts about him nor being mad about this, one bad thing doesn’t erase all the things he lived with us, all those important goals, those moments when he was our best defender in ages (alongside Mert), etc. Just sad it ended like this, but good luck to him.

Now can we please get a CB? like for right now, pretty please? I dread the thought to enter the season with our current defense.

Runzac

Thank you Kos for your service.

Flavoured Rice

See you and so long. I rated Mertesacker higher than Kos. Mertesacker suffered from extreme anxiety before matches – often vomiting before games he was such a bag of nerves. However, he always gave his best.

Koscielny vomited at the the prospect of another year in London. My heart bleeds for the poor mite…

Ah well, life goes on. There will be no statue built for him and rightly so.

Kentish Gooner

Finally, a conclusion to the fiasco!

Goonereality

Yes, it had to be ended in this window – we just couldn’t have him sitting in the reserves for another half a season at the least. Shame it was so acrimonious but we’ll probably never know the full facts.

iGooner

We really need to get out of this Banter Era. With that said, all the best in Bordeaux Lolo.

shokim

Good luck in France, Bosscielny!

Mark

He’s been a great player and warrior for us, sad to see it end this way. 5 million is more than I thought we’d get for him.

Ilari

Yeah but what about Coutinho and Upamecano!? This transfer window is not good for my health, all I’m doing after work is sitting home, refreshing Twitter and drinking beer, I want this to stop.

Goonereality

I think there’s very little chance of Coutinho arriving at a reported £27 million fee for a single season’s loan. Also, he’s rubbished a move, preferring to stay at Barca than join Arsenal – is he mad? Latest press reports suggest Arsenal did not make a formal bid for Upamecano after all. The fee quoted seems a tad high for us anyway unless we’re very creative with repayments etc.. and Leipzig are prepared to play ball. There will probably be more fevered speculation as we near the deadline, often put about by agents. Whether we’ll manage to bring in a… Read more »

Ilari

That’s probably the case on Coutinho, I made a mistake of getting excited after the L’equipe report. About upamecano, let’s see. The option seems to be rugani.

Santori

You don’t live in the real world. Why do we need Coutinho? We already have Ozil, Smith-Rowe and Ceballos. The bloke is also 27yrs and will cost when we need to really be fixing Cback issues now. PLus just FYI, Unai debunked that rumour himself. We do not have the money to go chasing for LB RB Coutinho. This is fantasy stuff. The cost on a TOP END Cback is very high due to lack of supply. Plus they know we need one. We will likely have to put all our resources into it and there is still huge possibility… Read more »

Ilari

In my ”real world” a report from a moderately respected journalist is more reliable info than anyone’s personal guess about what the club wants to do. And for me coutinho would have been great, an upgrade for iwobi, micki and maybe özil. But it’s not happening, let’s hope for that CB

Twatsloch

Thank you, Kos, and all the best!

JeremyDG

Good luck Kos. Bordeaux is a lovely city. I am not sorry he is leaving. He has regressed in recent years through no fault of his own (injuries + age + Mustafi can test anyone). That he remained our best defender last season says more about our defence than it does him. All of this unpleasantness does feel unavoidable though considering we all kind of got what we wanted in the end, regardless of who is most at fault.

Dave Cee

Agree totally. But Bordeaux should be ashamed of themselves. Got a good player to rebel against his contract to try and steal him on a free…and they are loaded with cash. Really poor form..fuck them

Jose

Mercí Kos

Santori

Merci Beaucoup. He has done us great service and a massive favour this summer and deserves our utmost respect. Too many naive (and frankly ungrateful) people can’t read between the lines. Club would have likely pointed to Saliba as the future, hobbled a long with Koscielny as a spare one more season pointing to Holding and Chambers as LANS. Sure they’d then use the spare money to spend on Tierney but we would not have addressed outstanding issues at CBack. Arguably we are still in danger of not addressing them. BUT Laurent has forced their hand and made them reconsider… Read more »

Wilsheres Middle Finger

Add the ‘France to lose the World Cup’ statement into the equation, and maybe we’re seeing a man who is overly selfish. That may be adding 2+2 together and getting 17. But these two incidents don’t fit with my previous angelic perception of his character.

Goonereality

Good news – it was certainly the best outcome for both him and the club.

I’m glad we managed to get a deal done at a sensible fee according to earlier reports and weren’t holding out for the fantasy money (around £10 million) quoted initially.

Let’s move on now and concentrate on the next problem that needs sorting – the fact that we have very few quality (key word) centre backs available for next season and even less time time to do anything about it!

Santori

Yes that was just face saving effort.

We should have just let him go start of summer.

This whole thing is a bit farcical.

Koscielny is correct to call time with us. He has been a great servant but we need to fix our issues properly and he knows he is not the answer.

Koscielny-Sokratis against wolves leaked 3 goals without Mustafi.

Ditto in Europa finals (actually four with Torreira culpable for the 4th)

He’s been a phenomenal player for us but he is in waning years (arguably we should have replaced him last summer)