Arsenal: How much is a year of Laurent Koscielny worth?

Arsenal are reportedly fielding offers for Laurent Koscielny. With a year left on his contract, how much is one season of the Frenchman actually worth? That is the question the Gunners must ask themselves.

Arsenal have decisions to make about many of the players in the present squad. After Unai Emery inherited a somewhat lacklustre collection of players last summer, he has now had a year to work with them, understand their vices and virtues, recognise which he can use and which he feels should be moved on, and begin to act on his conclusions.

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There are some more obvious cases. Emery clearly wants to sell Shkodran Mustafi, Carl Jenkinson, David Ospina and Mohamed Elneny. There are those that are slightly less clear but still seemingly heading in one direction: Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan the two that immediately spring to mind. And then there are the more controversial cases for which there are strong arguments for and against.

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Laurent Koscielny most certainly lands in that latter category. The Arsenal centre-half enjoyed, remarkably, one of his best seasons in north London last year, recovering from a gruesome ruptured Achilles and eight months out of the game to return to close to his peak form. Now 33, — he will turn 34 in September, Koscielny ended the season as the number one central defender in Emery’s pecking order.

That, in and of itself, is a conundrum. Yes, it was wonderful to see him overcome the injury, missing a World Cup triumph and contemplating retirement, but to have the anchor of your defence playing on a breaking body well into his mid-30s is not a secure place to be. It is time to move towards the future. And it seems as though Koscielny agrees, who has reportedly considered his options away from the Emirates.

The question of whether selling Koscielny comes down to how much one year of his services is worth. Because his contract has just one more year to run, if he is not sold this summer, he will walk out the door for nothing next year, which, at nearly 35, is a very different scenario to Aaron Ramsey leaving for free this summer.

And that question is more complicated than it sounds. It is not just a case of how useful Koscielny the player is. By keeping him for another year, there is the added benefit of his experience and leadership in aiding the development of younger prospects. Conversely, he could become a progress stopper, an older starting matches that should be given to the likes of Rob Holding and Calum Chambers as they look to prove themselves as true first-team options.

Incorporated into all of this is the wages. Koscielny earns £90,000 per week. By selling him for, let’s say, £10 million, Arsenal would actually save themselves £14.68 million. That is not a small figure. Given the financial restrictions the club is working under this summer, it could go a long way towards reinvesting in the squad.

I am not sure what the best course of action is with Koscielny. I can certainly listen to both sides of the debate. But at the heart of it is the question: Just how much is one year of Koscielny worth?