There was always going to be another side to the story and reports are starting to come in revealing why Laurent Koscielny felt he had no choice but to effectively go on strike.
You can break it down into three parts, first, the Frenchman feels that the club is deliberately pricing him out of a move. Secondly, he believes they mismanaged his return from injury and thirdly, he is dismayed at the direction the club is taking.
Now, it can be argued that he has a point, Arsenal is more or less pricing him out of a move, no one is going to pay the reported £8.8 Million they are demanding for a player of his age who has just come off an injury.
It is also no surprise that he feels they mismanaged his return from injury, there is enough evidence that foreign players tend to travel abroad for a lot of their treatment and there has to be a reason for that.
Finally, he is absolutely right to be dismayed at the direction the club is taking. I would suggest the vast majority of the fans feel the same.
But none of that justifies in any way his decision to not travel to the USA with the team and down tools.
He is the captain, he has a contract and Arsenal are within their rights to value any player as they see fit and as for the other reasons they seem to me as just making excuses for the sake of it, I mean, Arsenal is in such a bad condition that he wants to move to clubs that are actually inferior. You literally cannot make this stuff up.
There is only one way I could defend Koscielny on this and that is if the club had an agreement with him, which they clearly have not or he would have said so already.
This unfortunately puts us in a terrible state but brings out the light in holding, Mavropanos and Chambers
We are doomed bevause he’s also our best CB and my fear is that Mustafi is probably staying
Yep mate. Our best Defender past décade, club is heading nowhere and thatns enough to refuse to move on.
What news is missing is issue with his contract. Offered 2 years but lower wage, more upon top 4 finish, which is impossible with such team.
This article is ridiculous:
Why would he go to Kroenke’s Land lof America if hé feels club is heading to the wall?
He wants a fare treatment, club to show ambition and hé is right. Club should fix this and do whatd right. Note tru to dell him 10M. That is do disrespectful and greedy. But cant replace him!
I dont understand the farce. If he comes back, says I am ready to play, takes his 90k per week, and next day says he has a back injury (remember? no team can play someone who says he has a back injury, and its a type of injury players tend to get when they want to sit out, medically impossible to prove otherwise), takes his full year’s salary and leaves at the end, who will be at fault? Another unhappy player and 5m in salary gone for nothing, I can see this coming.
I personally don’t think he will be missed, I mean did France miss him at the world cup? Did we miss him when we 22 games unbeaten without him? In his 9 years at the club we have lost more cup finals with him than we have won with him.
I don’t mean to sound like sour grapes, but he should not be allowed back from this, I am from an earlier generation and remember the days that players got sent him from preseason tours, for misbehaving, I would take that everyday rather than a player drawing 5m a year and refusing to go. Funny how he didn’t ask to go last season, when we paid his wages while he recovered from surgery.
Sorry he has burned his bridges as far as I am concerned, I wouldn’t just take his captaincy I would remove him from the first team page and give his number to Holding.
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I’ve been saying that Koscielny has been a professional all these years.He has played his heart out for Arsenal all with an injury.He has never said he wanted to leave and I remember him rejecting Bayern Munchen and one top club from Spain during his prime years.This is completely out of character from him and I really hope he comes out with a message because it just doesn’t add up for me to refuse going for preseason when he knows he’s under contract.He should come out and tell us everything because I believe many would like to know the reason for such an action
Since Griezmann has just joined Barcelona, is there any news from the ITKs about Arsenal’s move on Barcelona’s fringe players?
Malcom, but Barca will prefer to sell or loan him with an obligation to buy.Even a loan for him will be a robbery.Man’s an average player
Kev anything he says won’t change anything. He got it wrong big time and worse enough he is the captain. I don’t think he will be remembered vividly at Arsenal just like v.perstrings before him irrespective of what he has done for the club.
Nah it will be unfair for him to be remembered like that.He gave his best years and now it looks like he hasn’t got the engine.Wont be long before we hear he’s retired.
I just want him to give a reason for the acts not that it’s justified because he can’t but we need to know what happened.Players are also human and lots of things can make them go out of character.At times too much is expected of them
Good point about expectations on plays Kev. I would counter by saying this:
They signed contract with open eyes. They play at a great club, subjected to criticism both fair and unfair, and risk injuries.
In return they are paid millions of dollars, have guaranteed contracts, and receive some of the best medical care in the world.
They voluntarily sign the contracts knowing full well the obligations.
Kos wants to leave for MONEY; not titles, trophies, or glory, but money.
Club desperately needs a leader, and Kos decides to be a mercenary. Let him F-off then if a club pays his fee. Otherwise let him spend his own money to get out if it’s so F-ing unbearable to him now.
So much for captains going down with their ship. Shows he was never a captain or leader
Fair enough.But I’m not justifying his actions though.Also Kos has been here through many dark and tough times and also many huge defeats.He was never a leader though.His actions were very wrong and pit of order but I will still remember him for more good than bad
Let Kos go. He is just little above average. Let him go.
Spot on!!
In a sort of ironic twist the despicable rantings by Kosienly may really be him doing the club a huge favor. From all reports the delay in signing Salliba is that St. Etienne wants the defender back for a year so Arsenal might have told Kos he needs to be the main defender for one more year. Kosienly knows he can no longer fulfil that role and thus demanded a move. It might indicate that Arsenal had no plans to buy another CD even after all the defensive frailties we showed last season. In all honesty we might have to accept the fact that we are currently a mid table team at best with no hopes of offloading the likes of Ozil, Mustafi, Miki and Xhaka so we might as well sacrifice using the kids for a few years and hope that they eventually come good because we all see Kronke has no interest in Arsenal except making money. By that time the contracts of the aforementioned gentlemen will all have expired and the club can then start to recover its aura. I desperately hope at that time Arsenal haven’t deteriorated so much that it is unfixable. Saddle up guys we could be in for a long bumpy few years!!!!
Sad to say you are right in your assessment for the next two seasons at least, if this transfer window is not successful. By that I believe Arsenal nead a CB, LB, wide forward (winger) and a Ramsey replacement. Otherwise Arsenal have to pin its hopes on the U23’s stepping up. Two years gives these younger players either the opportunity to succeed or attract resale value and the high earners to be moved off the books to free up funds.
Henry and Van Persie also didn’t like Arsenal’s transfer policy, therefore they left. Arsenal’s orientation is similar to some greedy movie production companies or some money-oriented advertising agencies, which prioritize big profit over awards or trophies
After serving for nearly a decade and watching his colleagues or ex-colleagues got obscene pay raises, Koscielny seems to feel he had enough of Arsenal’s transfer policy BS. He must have expected to get a major trophy at the club, but he wasted his prime age there for pennies instead
He must be sold ASAP to prevent his influence on the other players and the youngsters. Had Arsenal been serious in replacing him, they should have made an offer for Saliba’s alternative in this week
“Wasted his prime age for pennies.” Kos makes a reported £4.7 million per year; I think he’s been adequately compensated for his time.
If his weekly wages dropped during last year of contract like I read, then why did he sign the extension? Odd he stayed while making high salary, but now it’s unbearable?
Entitled player thinking he’s owed more than the contract he willingly signed. No one forced him, or made him sign anything.
Fine and suspend him as rules stipulate, then move him to U-23. If he wants to act like a kid, let him play with the kids.
Arsenal in bad place all around, and our “loyal” captain decides to pull this stunt now. Management should remove this malcontent immediately.
Mustafi should be over the moon and put Kos at top of his Christmas list. Mustafi a lock to play now.
Well put Durand.Nothing and I mean nothing can justify such a behavior from a player.
So because Aubameyang did the same at Dortmund:
1) we should treat him as a villain
2) not have signed him because of his bad character.
Hypocrisy knows no bounds with some on here. Koscielny feels that the club did not pay him quite enough and give him the career a France Captain deserves but the club’s actions over the 10 million were the last straw. Footballers wages are relative (relative to each other and not the real world. If you feel you work harder, have shown greater loyalty than you want to be treated better than a lazy colleague)
Waiting to see whether Mustafi has learned from his mistakes or not
Because Arsenal don’t have enough money to buy a high quality CB and Holding is unfit, Mustafi would be our only hope in the back. He made some awful decisions last season, but he is our fittest CB and he rarely gets injured
Well said Durand, selling him as soon as possible is the best punishment for his insolence. There is not need demoting to under23 as that comes with a consequences which is the 4.5m he will take without commitment. If I were Raul I will come to a room and tell me to tell Lyon or Bordeaux to come up with 5m and everyone will be happy. 5m from plus 5m (wages) that is 10m. That is enough to rescue our pride back from Spurs.
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Agreement or not, I stand with him..hell what else did he achieved with us other than FA cups? Bayern Munich came calling a lot in the past, which he refused. That’s a fact we all know, except you want to live in denial that Bayer never came for him.
Now after those FA cups, everyone including the fans expected us to move to higher places after that, but where are we going? Plus the club has shown zero ambitions to fix part of the team so far.
Truly it’s a question we’ve all been asking, where deefvck are we going ?
The club stood by him, the club did this, blah blah blah, he stood by the club too, he didn’t jump ship when he had the chance. Sanchez jumped ship after how many seasons? At a point even Henry left to go win at Barca, RVP did, Our best players left us for how long? Yet the club has shown zero ambitions, mind you this Arsenal, the club we all love but also know can be sneaky when it comes to convincing us fans.
Why is Arsenal trying to keep him by asking for an impossible price? Perhaps deep down the club has no intentions of bringing in another CB?
Perhaps the club wants him to stay so he’ll be the excuse, saying Holding is back and we have enough CBs?
Who will pay 8 to 10 million for a 33 years old player who just came back from a long term injury?.
Now refusing to go on tour, will I say he’s right to have taken that action? No he’s wrong, but I stand with him if he wants to leave, there are other ways he could’ve reacted towards the mess the club is going through, but perhaps this all had to happen so we’ll get to know more stuffs going on inside the club?
Y wrong about henry, he left couse his divorce, and his ex wife decide to stay in london with their daugther, so he go to spain.
Like or not, kos have contract with arsenal, and he paid well for that.
There never a single bid for kos until now, zero!
A buyers can ask arsenal to lower kos price tag, in term of negosiation,
But no, a club like boerdeaux want have kos for cheap, or even for free, where kos still have 1 yr contract.
I still understand if there are any bid for kos, and arsenal reject it.
We not charity club
If another clubs played hardball when we buy their players, we should do that to.
Henry left for trophies i.e UCL.We might want to lie to ourselves but deep down we know the truth
Agree with you. Kos stuck by us. Something is big time wrong at Arsenal and as a supporter of 60 years I’ve never seen the club so paralysed. Our owner and management are totally useless.
Eddie I can you few reason. We paid 11m for Cech. Benetia 10m move to Far East. I’m not saying we should get the exact amount but him asking us to let him go for free is complete insolence. He collected over 30m pound in his 9 years with us playing or not, injured or health. Are not the one castigating the clubs for allowing players moving on for free. I won’t even mind 1 pound for him. His suitors must pay something.
He has a contract to honor. Otherwise he can just buy himself out and take a walk.
I know as a club we have issues but nothing can justify what he has done.
He hasn’t done much. Just didn’t go to play meaningless matches. Isn’t worth getting ‘re-injured for
So now he has a right to chose which matches to play and which ones not to?Where else does this happen?
Cliff you’re spont on. Too many years Wenger pampered and coddled players; too much a father and not enough demanding manager.
Kos upset b/c club made his tantrum public. He probably though his grievance would go under the radar and unnoticed, but instead club showed his true colors.
I’m not upset he wants out, I’m upset he thinks club “owed” him something. They owed him salary from contract he signed.
He inflicted all this on himself, he’s his own worse enemy. He should immediately be demoted, and any chance back to 1st team should require an apology to fans, his teammates, and management.
Absolutely no excuse to down tools; unprofessional of highest order, childish, entitled, and whiney.
Toxic behaviour and righteously being slaughtered by former players.
That is it.
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Perhaps now Bielek will get a chance, he deserves it….
Good article. There is most definitely something wrong at Arsenal and the players notice it. It seems that some players are losing faith. Looking at Kroenke, Venkatasham and Sanllehi, who wouldn’t lose faith? They don’t have the Arsenal heart. We are the gunners, the supporters and have fire in our hearts. Emery, Bould,and little Freddie are all trying hard and I’m sure Edu is deeply an Arsenal man. They have the Arsenal heart, but with the three stooges not having the Arsenal heart, Freddie, Bould and Emery are fighting a losing battle. Koscielny can see what’s going on. It seems that he’s been treated poorly.
I don’t care what people says. I would have done more than Kos did with the way the club is managed and the directions the club is going. I blamed Kos for not leaving when he was still young. Only average players play to earn money. Good players play for the money and trophies. Just look at our transfer activities this summer does it look like we will get a top six? Hell no. If we qualify for Europa then Emery should be manager of the year. Kos is among top ten best defenders in the premier league n he earns just 90thousand nit just that no major trophies. Our problem is not the coach we all have to realize that kroenke have to leave arsenal. We the fans can’t just sit here and talk all the time. The world have civilised, we have to take actions to push kroenke out
No one pushes billionaires anywhere, they push people. It’s Kronke’s property now, like it or not.
We’ll be good years down the road, but Kronke will never invest to speed up process. He doesn’t get involved for trophies remember?
All his teams go through this; multiple and consecutive years of a down cyle, then 2 years or so on the up. Sell players make a fortune and cycle begins again.
Nothing new with Kronke, he does it with all his teams. He sacked Wenger because he was losing money, not because he wanted a PL title or CL trophy.
20 yrs in CL, no trophy, but gobs of money he never planned to spend.
Now that snake says “can’t spend b/c no money from CL.” It’s all bullshit b/c 20 yrs in CL and snake Kronke still would not spend money to improve.
The more he lies the more he exposes previous lies. No wonder he’s”Silent Stan.” Can’t accuse a liar if they never speak aye?
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I think Koscielny has got it all wrong by his refusing to travel with the Arsenal team squad to the USA for pre-season games while knowing in his heart he’s still on Arsenal payroll. This clear act of insubordination by him to the constitute authority at the club is tantamount to bringing discipline at the club to disrepute. More so, coming from him as the club’s captain that he is. Who should be leading by example at the club for other Gunners to follow.
By the way, doesn’t Koscielny have an agent who must have negotiated his current deal at Arsenal that has a year to run on it with another year option to take? Which Koscielny willing signed not under duress but willingly I perceive. If so, why is he now crying wolf?
Jack Wilshere fell in to the same situation at Arsenal when he was there playing which Koscielny has seemingly now fallen into. But Wilshere took the deal given to him which he considered unfavorable on the chin and left Arsenal calmly to join West Ham.
My advice to Koscielny despite that he didn’t ask me for any is, let him calm down and have a sober reflection on the sudden ugly situation that he has put himself in at Arsenal by reiterating the bad steps he has taken so far on this issue by buying himself out of his contract at the club which I believe he won’t do because it will cost him close to 5 Million pounds to do it which will be colossal for him to pay I would imagine. Or let him wait to see if any club not necessarily in the PL but it could be, will meet Arsenal valuation of £8.8m placed on him before he can be signed from the club this summer. The transfer window is still long which I believe Koscielny is very much aware of. Anything can still happen but if Koscielny will not be in such a hurry to leave Arsenal this summer which could after all be to his favour if he waits.
In the event that no club meets the Arsenal valuation asking fee to sign him this summer, which I believe could be subject to negotiation to arrived at an acceptable price that will see Koscielny leaves Arsenal this summer. But in the absent of seeing this happening, Koscielny should stop this his insane strike action at Arsenal but eschew bitterness and restart behaving properly at club embracing discipline by apologizing to the club hierarchy bosses for his misbehaving and disobedience to them. And ask them for their forgiveness. While in the same doing, he should sort for reconciling with his playing colleagues at club earnestly to regain the respects they had for him which I think he has lost by his refusing to join them to travel to the USA for pre-season games. By so doing, koscielny may retain his captaincy of the team but not lost it. Which if he did will be a demotion slight on him while still playing for Arsenal next season.
You forgot a promise made to him by the club to let him go back home if they failed to qualify for CL,he never refused to play while other players didn’t play because of back problems, little knocks.,. the guy had a nearly ending career injury, don’t forget if Santi had not gone to Spain he would have lost his foot,6/7 surgeries in the UK he lost over 5 inches,I watched holding doc,he had massives scared,bellerin came back from Spain walking normally after 3 weeks and one perfect small scare so you are right when talking about players going abroad for surgeries!!how desperate as a club are we to depend on koss at his age???
Tissiam, have you evidence of this promise to Koscielny concerning his release (and under what conditions) should Arsenal fail to gain a Champions League place, please?
Ok you might have a point but I didn’t make it up and this was to detailed to be false,the same article stated that the agreement was made in December when the club thought we would make the top 4,I’m going to have a look at where I got this info from,but my 2nd point about how desperate do we have to be to depend on koss,think of the reasons why,no intentions to buy a new central defender!!
The alarming fact is.. our most loyal and hard working captain has made a stand for a reason that is personal to him. That reason has to be massively important to him for him to risk his legacy! He must see the situation at Arsenal as the worst it has ever been during his service?
I for do not feel that the club is ambitious or serious about challenging on the biggest stage any more! It’s a money making machine. That’s all. I doubt that many players we want will actually come to Arsenal because even our captain wants out of this sh*t show!!
Spot on!
The most worrying thing for me is that emery does not rate mustafi, mavropanos, bielik or chambers as a centre back. Allegedly he told koscielny he may not be first choice when everyone is fit. So I am assuming he is only happy with the undisciplined Sokratis and the currently injured Holding. Yet we are going all out for wingers, that we clearly cannot afford.
I can see Emery leaving real soon with Edu begging Allegri to come off his 1 year out of the game. Or some random Brazilian.
Atid, Arsenal can’t afford players, how can they afford to pay Emery out as well?
There is no chance of Allegri coming to the Emirates, because he won’t agree to work just as Head Coach under the current management structure, he would laugh at the transfer budget and he is not prepared to move from Italy and learn another language.
The one we chose as our captain, our leader, and now we’re going into pre-season with our captain refusing to go on the tour. How do you think that looks?
Things fall apart
Let us stick to legal facts on the Kos business. Firstly, He is a paid employee who signed alegal contract to play for Arsenal for a defined period and collect wages for doing so. The club has paid him regularly, whether injured , poor form or any other matter. His legal and moral duty is to play for Arsenal FC until such time that a mutually agreeable change or termination of his contract happens. He is massively disrespecting the club, us fans, his manager, his teammates and his own personal honour. There should be no weakness by the club nor will there be, imo. If he refuses to play, the club ought to sue him and will certainly win in law. THOSE ARE THE LEGAL FACTS. All else is merely opinion , which will of course vary. IMO the club ought to make a firm stand against this player arrogance and if it goes to law, so much the better for us in the medium and long term.
You know full well that professional footballers are not treated like everybody else, players today are a brand,they are worshipped by millions so no comparisons there, I’m sure you have heard of players power,in the end they always get what they want so will koss one way or the other,all he has to do is wait 12 months and become a free agent get a new club, signing fee while getting 90K a week and once again the club ends up losing money,tell me in which scenario do you see kids losing??
Let him go, he does not want to play for us anymore set a plausible fee and let him go we have had the best years of him anyway, we would be better served finding a replacement now than having an ageing injury prone player that wants out for another year.