Arsenal: Does Laurent Koscielny mess impact William Saliba?

Arsenal have a deal tied up for William Saliba, but the 18-year-old defender will not join up with the squad until next summer. Does the recent Laurent Koscielny mess impact this impending transfer?

It was a bombshell. Although there had been reports throughout the summer months that Laurent Koscielny wanted to leave the club, no one expected the Arsenal captain to refuse to travel on the pre-season tour of the United States in an attempt to engineer exit, angry that the final year of his contract was not mutually terminated.

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And yet, in an official statement on Thursday morning, the club confirmed that that is exactly what had happened. Koscielny refused to travel and Unai Emery and the club were conducting a disciplinary process.

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There is obviously something going on here, and it would not surprise me to learn that there have been issues bubbling under for some time — suggestions that Koscielny was annoyed at his usage last season hint at this. But the reason why Koscielny wants to leave is somewhat irrelevant. All that really matters here is that he does want to leave and will likely get his way should the right offer be received, reportedly in the region of £8-9 million.

The centre-back position was already a problem. Emery had highlighted it as one of the key needs to address in the summer window. Should Koscielny leave, the gaping hole at the heart of the defence only widens. And this casts doubt over Arsenal’s move for their long-term solution at the position, the highly touted, 18-year-old Saint Etienne defender, William Saliba.

Earlier in the week, a roughly £26.5 million deal for Saliba had been agreed to between the two clubs. The transfer fee would be paid in staggered payments, most of them coming after this summer, preserving much of Arsenal’s measly £40-45 million budget, but Saliba would spend the next season on loan at St. Etienne, as was relentlessly demanded by the Ligue 1 club.

Many had already questioned the sanity of the move. Investing so much in a player that you cannot use for a year does seem little odd, even if the investment is kicked down the road somewhat. And perhaps now, those doubts are intensified with Koscielny expected to leave before the season commences.

The immediate help that Arsenal required at the centre-back position is now even more desperate. If you take Koscielny out of the picture, Emery is left with a 30-year-old Sokratis, a wholly unreliable Shkodran Mustafi, who is expected to be sold this summer also, and three relatively unproven young-ish prospects. It is not the most convincing of position groups, that much is sure.

The Koscielny mess should not end the Saliba interest. That deal is done for very different reasons that do not pertain to the here and now. But it does cast questions over the recruitment of central defenders this summer. Arsenal need another, desperately, and with less than a month remaining of the transfer window, they are running out of time.