So bye-bye Koscielny as yesterday Bordeaux and Arsenal confirmed his switch to the French club after both teams agreed a few thought to be €5million.

In today’s market and exchange rate it’s not too bad for a player who forced the clubs hands through his unprofessionalism and tantrumming by refusing to go on tour to the US. It’s a departure that I don’t think the club wanted, don’t think the club was planning for, so came out of left field and despite what some idiots on social media are saying I think they played a straight bat and made the best out of an unsavoury situation. I’ve even seen some people suggest that the statement Arsenal made was a little cold for a player who has spent nine years at the club. Not for me. I think it was spot on and Arsenal showed in that statement that they weren’t being messed around and they were going to retain the control, especially with the ‘we sanctioned the move after a fee was agreed’ part. Well played Arsenal, well played.

As for Koscielny, well, his ‘reveal’ video said it all and as well as his behaviour in the lead up to this transfer this summer, the way in which he revealed it just spoke to a lack of class. His comments on Instagram were a PR firm in action and as they say, those actions speak louder than those words, in which all of his ‘thanks to the club’ nonsense flew in the face of the way he acted. He was still wanted, he was under contract (a contract he was paid a lot of money each week to uphold by the way), yet he decided he wanted to force the move. Of course that is his prerogative and not unfamiliar in the modern game. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to be looking at him all doughy-eyed. Far from it.

It’s a sad end but an end I think we’re all glad of. He’s 33 going on 34, he has his injury problems, he was in the last year of his contract, so at least Arsenal got some cash for him and got his expensive wages off the wage bill. He leaves not as a legend but a player who had a few very good seasons, had a mistake or two in his game, but ultimately somebody who has been part of a defence which is certainly much maligned. Cheerio. We move on.

And we must move on now. Quickly. Yesterday I said Arsenal have 48 hours to come up with something and that is now closer to 34 hours as I write this, so the clock is ticking and in all honesty we need to hear today that Arsenal have made their move for Tierney and a left back if all is to be agreed by tomorrow afternoons deadline. It still feels a little too quiet for me and with foreign clubs able to sign players for a few weeks more, I can’t see anyone making a move for any of our players yet, as much as we’d like them to.

That leaves the Transfer Team with a little bit of a conundrum:

  1. Go hard now and push for a centre half and left back in the hope somebody comes to us for Mustafi, or
  2. Keep the powder dry and stick with Mustafi for this season, with a hope that Holding and Sokratis remain fit and Chambers comes good.
  • Option 2 is clearly the least appealing but we have to be realistic here: Arsenal don’t have a big pot of cash to tempt an Upemencano in, or another up and coming name. We simply can’t afford it unless, I suspect, we sell someone like Mustafi for decent numbers. Nobody is interested in that and so I’m sure right now Arsenal feel like they are between a rock and a hard place. We’re now at the stage where every second counts though so I suspect today is going to be vital for Raul, Unai and Huss, because they’ve basically got to decide if they’re going to take a massive gamble or not.

    • My gut feel is that I think they’ll push for the injured Tierney and then that’ll be it, which ultimately isn’t enough and in itself is a gamble, but it’s a gamble on our forward line. We’re essentially telling the world that yes, we’ll be conceding goals this season, but we think we can score enough to get top four and secure the riches that come.

    To me that’s such a big gamble because it leaves us unbalanced and with some players that there are huge question marks over, as well as players who have had their fair share of injury problems in the last couple of seasons.

    We just have to hope that we hear noises today. Fingers crossed.

    And with that I take my leave for another day. Hopefully tomorrow we’re at least talking about a deal being on the cards. Cross everything and hope for the best folks.

    Laters.