By Fab4.
Arsenal are inching ever closer to the signing of Laurent Koscielny. It has been widely reported today that we have agreed a fee and are now set to discuss a contract with the player, who missed the return to pre-season training yesterday with his current club Lorient.
Arsenal have been after the 24-year-old centre back all summer and Arsene Wenger confirmed our interest a couple of weeks ago. Initial offers of £4.5m and £7m were rejected but now it seems the two clubs have come to an agreement and the transfer is expected to be completed in the coming days. French sources claim the fee is £9.7m but many other media outlets feel it’s nearer £8.5m.
The signing will be a welcome addition to Arsenal’s back line, which is short of both numbers and experience as William Gallas, Mikael Silvestre and Sol Campbell are all out-of-contract at the club and yet to agree new deals.
With that in mind, surely there will be another defender coming to the Emirates this summer as well as Koscielny? Once ‘Kos’ is officially a Gooner, we will only have three centre backs who you could argue are ready for first team football. Vermaelen is one of the first names on the team sheet, Djourou has been out for over a year with a serious knee injury and nobody knows how many games we will get out of him after such a long time out, and Koscienly is a newbie and it would be good fortune to find another centre back who comes in and settles immediately into premiership life like Vermaelen did last year.
So another established defender is a priority i feel. It would be crazy to go into a new season with only three centre backs. Yes we have a few decent youngsters coming through, but don’t tell me you would want to see Bartley or Norveit marking Drogba next season! If Sol signs a new one-year deal we might get away with having four centre backs, IF Koscielny settles well and Djourou suffers no adverse reactions to his comeback. I just don’t want injuries and lack of depth to be an excuse again next season.
Do you think Arsenal should buy another centre back as well as Koscielny?
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