Arsenal: The easy solution to Laurent Koscielny mess

Laurent Koscielny has refused to travel with Arsenal on their pre-season tour to the United States. There is an easy solution to this mess, should Unai Emery want to take it.

It is never nice when divorces get messy. But Arsenal and their captain are about to go through one the mire of public separation.

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There had been murmurs throughout the summer that Laurent Koscielny wanted to leave, but these were largely disregarded. Now it seems as though there may be more substance to the reports.

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As the Gunners prepare for their pre-season tour of the United States, during which Unai Emery will ready his team for the upcoming season, Koscielny will be remaining at home. In an official club statement on Thursday morning, Arsenal said:

"“Laurent Koscielny has refused to travel to the US for our pre-season tour. We are very disappointed by Laurent’s actions, which are against our clear instructions. We hope to resolve this matter and will not be providing any further comment at this time.”"

There has been no official announcement of Koscielny’s reasons, but putting two and two together is not especially difficult here. He reportedly wants to leavein search of a new challenge and he is now trying to engineer a move away. It is disappointing behaviour to see from any player, but from a captain, this is rather deplorable and a hugely upsetting way to likely end his north London tenure.

And that is the easy solution to the Koscielny mess. Keeping unhappy players rarely ends well. The decision to prevent them from leaving is often made because they are special players and the team believes that they cannot survive in their absence. See Crystal Palace and Wilfried Zaha as a prime example.

But that is not the case regarding Koscielny. He is not a special player, not at nearly 34 years of age having suffered incessant Achilles problems and a renowned broken body that struggles to train and play two or three games a week. Selling him does not leave Arsenal lurching at the centre-back position. They need a central defender with or without Koscielny in the fold.

As such, selling him becomes the very easy and very sensible solution to this problem. He will not fetch a major fee. £10 million would an astounding figure. But he has a year left remaining on his contract and will walk out for nothing next summer. Recouping at least some value that can then be reinvested into other players and positions is obvious, and smart.

The Koscielny mess could run and run. Given his service to the club and the relationship he has with the fans, that would be a crying shame. He deserves a respectful, celebrating send-off, not being hounded out. Sell him. Sell him swiftly. Sell him respetfully and move on as quickly as possible. Divorce is never nice.