Unai Emery Still Hopes Laurent Koscielny Stays at Arsenal

DBasia.news –  Arsenal suddenly brought in players ahead of the end of the summer transfer market. After recruiting Gabriel Martinelli, Dani Ceballos and William Saliba, the club will complete the transfer of Nicolas Pepe.

On the other hand, the Gunners are also clubs that actively let go of their players, after losing Aaron Ramsey, Danny Welbeck, and Stephan Lichsteiner, now it’s the turn of the team captain, Laurent Koscielny who is rumored to be leaving the Emirates Stadium soon.

This happened after the Frenchman refused to take part in a group pre-season tour to the United States, with the aim that the club immediately releases him. As is known, he is indeed included in the shopping list of Ligue 1 clubs, Rennes.

If previously Unai Emery was disappointed with the attitude shown by Koscielny and gave a signal if the player would leave soon, this time a different opinion was again conveyed by the Spanish man. He still opened the door wide for Koscielny and hoped that Arsenal could maintain it.

“Laurent Koscielny is an important player for Arsenal. When we are back in communication with him to discuss my responsibilities, the club and of course his responsibility as a footballer,” Emery said as quoted by the Mirror.

“That (refusing to take part in preseason) is a personal decision taken by Koscielny and we respect him. At the moment we are in talks and are looking for the best solution. Broadly speaking, Arsenal still need a player like him,” added the 47-year-old manager.

Even though it is still bound by a contract until 2020, the opportunity to see Koscielny leave seems to have remained open, even the news circulated if the player with a central defender had found a personal agreement to leave Rennes.

Closing the conversation, Emery also confirmed that he had persuaded Koscielny to stay in London many times.

“I have struggled with all my strength and seduced him to stay afloat, but on the other hand, I also appreciate the decisions taken by Koscielny. I still hope he will remain part of the team in the 2019/20 season, but for now, he has decided to leave,” closed the former PSG manager.