A few years ago I seem to remember hearing some comments from the Arsenal and France international defender Laurent Koscielny about his burning desire to win things in his playing career, with the suggestion that if this was not going to0 happen with the Gunners then he would be forced to leave north London for a club with more ambition.
Since then the centre back has been able to celebrate two back to back FA cup trophy successes and he does seem to be happy where he is. But when the German Bundesliga champions come knocking you cannot ignore the fact that a player like Koscielny who is nearing the final few years at the peak of his powers might be tempted.
That means that we might need to be worried about Arsenal being able to hang on to one of our best players as the Sunday Express has reported that the German giants are keen on Koscielny and that talks with the Frenchman over a new contract have stalled.
Then we see that the wages package on offer to the 30-year old is just £90,000 a week and I am left wondering why Arsenal do not simply offer him more. Do Wenger and the Arsenal board not realise that it would take a lot more than what we would spend by giving him, for example. £120,000 a week and showing him how important he is, to get a replacement of similar quality?
Come on Arsenal, stop messing about and give our best defender whatever it takes to make him forget about Bayern Munich and commit his future to the Gunners!
Bob.
Do Bayern really need a
30 yr old Koscielny? No.
Does Wenger need Koscielny?
Most certainly.
Mertz is nearing the end,
Gabriel is struggling
Chambers is languishing.
Kos is our only top CB.
Koscielny is very loyal and I doubt he
is banging on about more money.
Would be a riot if Kos was sold.
My thoughts are with Demba Ba at this difficult time. Get well soon bro.
We MUST keep Koscielny
We must also get another top CB like Koulibaly, Murillo, Godin, Hummels, Howedes
If we lose Koscielny there is no guarantee that we will replace him with the same quality. We didn’t replace Vermaelen and didn’t replace Sagna with same quality
In Bellerin we found somebody at least as good as Sangna and at a fraction of his Wages. When Wenger gets it right he kicks it out of the ground but there’s been too many missed opportunities and failed experiments
Our problem is players of his quality are scarce and expensive. We definitely should pay up!
Koscielny will stay no doubt.
but for some thoughts. Why arent we after playerrs who were relegated last season. there are some decent players like Wijnaldum, Ayoze perez, sissoko, mitrovic, ayew, okore, brady.
sure they are relegated, but this players are still quality for depth, cheap and can be better playing under Wenger.
Bizarre how Arsene’ scouting network reaches far and wide and also begins and ends at our borders, I guess, lol, being from Alsace he was born indecisive then evolved into someone who wasn’t so sure anymore
We’re haggling with a world-class player over £90000 while mr fast and foolish is on 140k lol..
The easy and most convenient thing to do is to blame wenger but am placing some of the blame on the FA.
First this news is posted by one news outlet and has been circulated since and if the rumours are true then i think Laurent should leave the club as Arsenal can’t offer what Bayern can, including the fact that they have momentum with the players to win both the league and European trophy.
According to arsenal.com kos signed a long term contract in summer 2014. Some news outlets are saying the contract expires in 2017 others say 2019.
We know that arsenal are in discusions with ozil and sanchez about signing new contracts and their current contracts expire in 2018. We also new end dates for RVP and walcotts contracts and that discussions were being held to extend them.
Now suddenly, out of the blue we hear that kos is entering the last year of his contract. The source of the rumour also linking him to a move to bm. It all seems unlikely to me. seems unlikely to me, just more media made up rubbish.
Arsenal will certainly not allowed Koscielny to leave Arsenal this summer come what may, I would have thought.
Cos should be given the armband for the new season, he is the only world class CB we have.
Walcott 120k a week but Cos 90k a week is an absolute joke. What is the importance of Walcott compared with Cos? Cos deserves 140k a week
Santi, you must be on some wage if you think £90k per week is “an absolute joke”.
I wonder how many fans on this site earn that in a year. There are probably not many who earn that in two years.
It is our hard earned cash which is paying these wages. I do take your point though that kos is worth more than walcott.
I reckon it’s just paper talk. Someone mentioned how this probably isn’t even his last season, I don’t think it is either. I thought I remembered him signing a long term contract one or two seasons back. He wont be leaving, he is a large figure head here, and winning with Arsenal would mean so much more than a Bayern Bundesliga title. Bayern usually don’t offer their defenders over 100 grand a week, defenders are usually worst paid players. Koscielny does deserve over a hundred, he offers allot more to the cause than many of the other players. Id say, give him somewhere from 100 to 110. If we were going by worth to our game, he’d be in the top five highest earners.
I am not saying that 90k a week is a joke, what I want to say is compared to Walcott’s 120k Cos deserves more