Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Our New Number 6


by Rachid

Well it was really no secret but Arsenal have officially announced the signing of 24 year old central defender Laurent Koscielny from French side Lorient. According to the officials at Arsenal, the fee is said to be undisclosed. While this is something they do every time we sign a player to take pressure off him should he not live up to expectations, it is believed that the fee agreed is somewhere between £8.5 and £10 million. Koscielny will wear the number 6 shirt for us.

Since Arsene Wenger's in South Africa at the moment there weren't any statements made by him today about the signing but Koscielny had some words himself to say about the deal:
I'm very excited to be joining Arsenal. They are one of the biggest teams in Europe with many great players. I'm really looking forward to playing in the English Premier League and the Champions League with my new club. Also, in Arsène Wenger, Arsenal has one of the best managers in the world and I can't wait to work with him and do my best for the Arsenal supporters.
So what do we know about him really? We don't know how long his contract runs for but we do know it's a 'long term' deal. Like I said about him signing for an 'undisclosed fee', this is kept private to take pressure off the player.

Before coming to Arsenal, he made 40 scoreless appearances for En Avant Guingamp from 2004-2007. He then moved on to Tours where he scored 4 goals in 34 appearances from 2007-2009. He then moved away to spend a season at Lorient, scoring 3 goals in 40 appearances.

This is a typical Wenger signing as it's a player that no one really heard of until he was linked to us. Many are saying that he could very well be another Thomas Vermaelen in that he was a relative unknown before signing for us and had a significant impact on our performances right away. I can understand why people are saying that but many don't know that Vermaelen was actually Ajax' captain before we signed him and he was already a Belgium international. He was a relatively experienced player that we signed. This is not the case with Koscielny. He is an uncapped player who's only had 1 season of regular first team football. His other appearances for clubs before Lorient were made coming in off the bench as a youth player.

It's anybody's guess just how well Koscielny will do at Arsenal but he's been given the number 6 shirt and that shirt's been worn by Arsenal legends such as Terry Neill, David Court and Tony Adams. If Wenger had plans for him to take Senderos' place in the team as a backup then he probably would've been given a number in the teens. For him to get this number suggests that Arsene Wenger rates him highly and sees him as a potential starter.

I wish him the best of luck and a very long and successful Arsenal career.

Before I end, here's a little highlight reel of his career to date.



Are you excited about this signing? Let me know in the comments. Cya next time.

2 comments:

  1. who is this guy lol?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lol your guess is as good as mine, really. I honestly couldn't tell you whether he's a good defender or not. I've never seen him play before and until we were linked to him I'd never even heard his name. I can't wait for preseasons to finally see him in action and get a better assessment of what he has to offer.

    ReplyDelete

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