Arsenal: The sooner we can forget Laurent Koscielny, the better

It feels weird to say, but Arsenal fans are better off leaving behind the Laurent Koscielny drama and focusing on other things. And it might be made much easier.

I never expected Laurent Koscielny‘s Arsenal career to end the way it did. So many stars have left in disgrace, from Samir Nasri to Robin van Persie to Alexis Sanchez. But Koscielny always seemed like the guy that wouldn’t follow suit. He seemed the type to make a graceful exit, like his long-time defensive partner Per Mertesacker.

Not the case. Now, for the record, I’m speaking on this matter from the perspective of not choosing sides. It looked ugly on Koscielny’s part, but I’m sure the club had some ugliness on its part as well, especially if the ‘halving his wages’ bit was true.

But whatever did or didn’t happen, it’s best to just move on and forget about it. Time tends to heal things and in time, I’m sure we will remember Koscielny fondly, but for now, this is just another casualty of turning over a new regime.

Unai Emery’s biggest task when he took over for Arsene Wenger was stamping his own brand on this club, despite the embedded disciples of Wenger.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Those disciples included the likes of Mesut Ozil and Laurent Koscielny.

In order to completely move on, to start this new era of Arsenal Football Club, Emery needed to either find new purposes for them, or part ways entirely. And that’s not always a clean process, as Mesut Ozil is showing, and as Koscielny showed. Sometimes you have to make decisions based on practicality, not emotion, and that’s an Emery specialty.

Wenger was the opposite. And, again, part of turning over this new regime involves taking a new mindset, which Emery actively does. He didn’t bend to Koscielny’s wishes, he held a hard line and Koscielny wasn’t used to it, so he left. Fair play to both sides, they both ended up better off.

More than that, we thought that Koscielny leaving the club would be problematic to the current state of the defense, but in his stead, we are finding the recurring value of youth, as well as the excitement of a new veteran presence, David Luiz.

So, on the pitch, it’s going to be easy to forget Koscielny. It’s just the emotional baggage that we then need to leave behind. But again, it’s all for the best. Let the fond memories reemerge when the dust has settled.