Laurent Koscielny was pretty much unheard of when he signed for Arsenal from Lorient in 2010.
The then 24 year old had only had one year of top flight football, and his signing was viewed in some quarters as typical Wengerish: an unknown French player who might or might not make the grade.
Perhaps the transfer fee should have been a clue. At £10m back then, he wasn’t exactly bargain basement fodder, and the French international has established himself as one of the top centre-halves in Europe.
Reflecting on Wenger’s 20 years in charge, Koscielny spoke about how grateful he was to play his own little part in that.
“He gave me a chance to play for a big club like Arsenal,” he said. “He took the risk to buy me in a small club like Lorient, he shaped me, and he helped me grow as a player and as a man.
“And I think he won his bet. Every weekend I try to prove that he was right to trust me for this club, I try to do my best on the pitch.
“I’m not the only example, there have been plenty during these 20 years in Arsenal. That’s the work he did during all these years.”
The 31 year old is now forming a new partnership with Shkodran Mustafi, and now in his seventh season at the club has to go down as one of Wenger’s best ever buys.
And to think, we were all supposed to believe Squillacci was the one to save us.
Debatable but for me Koscielny is the best and ultimate Wenger center half.
I love Kos, but it’s tough call to make between the likes of Sol Campbell, Toure and him.
Kos has got another 6/7 years ahead of him at Arsenal.
After he retires they should build a statue outside the stadium for him.
Much as I love Kosc the man relies heavily on his pace. I can’t see him going another 6 or 7 years, maybe 4 or 5 with the last couple including a lot of time on the bench. Mustafi though, I can see a long, long Arsenal career ahead of that man.
I’m all for the statue, so long as they also include the back pocket to keep Diego Costa in.
Kosc and Kolo both in their prime would be a hell of a center back pairing.
To defend Squillaci, not something that happens often, he was joining as a current international and so had the experience and had also won trophies in other leagues.
Not every transfer is going to be perfect as it is also down to the player to adjust and climatise to the new league and Seb just didn’t do that.
Squillaci was a victim of Wenger’s tactic of pressing very high up the pitch
Seriously! Sparky and the ostrich?
His CV suggested he would be a very good buy for us but he just couldn’t get up to the speed required by the PL. He had a reasonable (not great!) turn of pace but always seemed at least a yard behind the game. But when he signed I’m sure many other managers wondered how they’d missed out in him for that price, until they saw him play a few games and were grateful they dodged that bullet.
I wish he wouldn’t age.
Still got a couple of good seasons in him after this one. I mean, if John F*ing Terry can play until he’s 35…
John Terry doesn’t play though; he barely moves! A lot of finger pointing, swearing/shouting and heading the odd ball should not be considered as playing.
Me neither. Kos is right up there amongst my favorite centre backs, always a big game player. And 7 years has passed? Holy fucking shit where did all those time go.
I look at how he is perceived in France (better since the Euros) and have to laugh. The best, and still underated nowadays.
Kos the Boss is a warrior for Arsenal. I would be happy for him to be club captain next year. Certainly agree that ‘Wenger won his bet’ – he does more often than not.
I want to place my bet too. Arsene any clue?
Sanogo and Chu Young Park :0
The Jeff
Zelalem
I wish we could win more for husband sake and players like him, but I sense Kos is someone which values such as loyalty means a lot to him.
I hope.
He’s been by far our best centre half since keown
Hmmm… he’s gone a bit mental now but Sol was a very good defender and Toure was also an able partner and deputy.
Completely off topic but just listened to this weeks arsecast, 5 minutes of talking of why Lucas wasn’t even on bench, Arsenal confirmed on match day that he had a knee injury don’t worry just a knock!On Kos he clearly to me is the best defender in the world, I’d take him over any previous defender we have had except Mr Arsenal, Big Sol runs him close though
Eboue.
Igor Stepanovs
Fishface Silvestre
Let’s not forget Gunnersaurus
Behave, he’s good but he’s no Dos Santos
Not as good as big Sol for me, but Kos is not far off.
and you Kos won my heart a long time ago….
Tony Adams.
Well to be fair, he lost us the league cup. But he did help us win the fa cup.
You are everything I hate in a fan, you just remember the only big mistake he has done in 7 years and by the way, a team win trophies or lose trophies, not a single player, if the striker would have score 4 more goals that day, we won’t even remember that.
Completely off topic, but why isnt there a comment section on arseblog (daily blog not the news articles)? The topics are usually broader than in the articles and could allow for interesting debate…or at least to be able to say how spot on the blog is – like the Wenger 20 blog a few days ago, as well as today’s. Love this website, wish you would write 2 blogs a day! Cheers!
There is a comment section. Look for the ‘X arses‘ where X = a number of some kind.
Yeah most of those are just people going “whatcha [insert name], how are the wife and kids” or “boilk” or other such things.
It’s pretty much an open forum all day, people discussing whatever rather than the actual post I make. It’s always been like that and I wouldn’t change it.
Here, for the most part, the comments are generally on topic.
True. But today my comment would have been right on blogs, perspective is all too rare in the world today. Thanks for the reminder.
Thanks man!
What kosielny is saying is Je ne vais nul part. Meaning I ain’t going nowhere.
It’s great to see a player showing his gratitude instead of angling to get out.
He might not have been given the chance otherwise given no one had really heard of him when we signed him. What a fine player and one of footballs real nice guys.
there was an item in the news a while back about how Kos bailed out with his own cash an old-established Accordion factory in his home town and saved about 30 jobs…hard to imagine say, for the sake of argument, John T#rry or Rooney doing something similar…
Koscielny is for Mustafi what Mustafi will be for Holding thoug Mustafi is already experienced and do have qualities, he still have to lean a couple of tricks from the Boss, look at Chelsea’s game, pretty sure Kos taugh him how to handle Costashit. Anyway no one wants to see him go by millions miles but at 31, his years are counted another 2/3 and he won’t have that pace and that eye for tackles anymore, not as it has them today. Koscielny IS definitly an Arsenal Legend and it’s a shame that a CB with those qualities has only… Read more »
And some people still have the nerve to think they know better than Wenger in the transfer market. Remember MVilla, Capoue, Melo all MUST signs for Arsenal according to the press and their followers…where are their careers now? Wenger has made his fair share of mistakes but crucially, he generally pays low which minimises impact to a self financed club and helps increase our revenue. Where he has gone big, he has been spot on with Ozil (panic buy they said), Alexis, Granit, Mustafi (Arguably Cech and Santi were big names but bought at significant bargain price ahead of rivals)… Read more »
But we should have bought Loric Cana…… 😀
Until last year i used to play with Chris Samba in midfield on FIFA just to add a bit of steel there. My mates would make fun of me but Samba did a terrific job. This year i am thinking of playing Bellerin at CF. I could use his pace to run in behind.
Mate, its your opinion and thats fine,
but just becuase other fans exist in this world who differ from you, does not make them ‘LESSER PEOPLE’ as you put it or need their ‘HEAD CHECKED’…
sounds like some serious superiority complex you have got there
or you are just a numpty who thinks that sun shines out of arse every day
except when its cloudy, because you farted too much.
Somebody build that man a statue!