Arsenal fans across the country were delighted to learn yesterday that Laurent Koscielny has committed himself to the club on a long-term contract.
Although the contract length was not disclosed the likelihood is that it will be run until beyond 2016.
Koscielny has been arguably one of Arsenal’s most consistent players over the last two seasons. He struggled to adapt to the pace and power of the Premier League initially and many doubted the abilities of the Frenchman, but since then his Arsenal career has flourished.
This is a man who kept Barcelona’s Lionel Messi in his back pocket with a dominating performance in last years Champions League Quarter Final and is now considered by many Arsenal fans as their best defender.
It’s not just the re-signing of a crowd favourite that will have Arsenal fans rejoicing though. Finally we are seeing Arsenal take a pro-active stance regarding their player contracts. In the last five years, we have seen on multiple occasions Arsenal’s failure to secure their main assets and end up losing them for a fraction of the price they are really worth.
Arsenal’s naivety began in 2005 when unaware that Mathieu Flamini would be set to have such a strong season, the club let him run his contract down to within a year of its expiry date. Flamini went on to form a strong partnership alongside Cesc Fabregas that year and Arsenal frantically attempted to negotiate on an improved contract, but all efforts were wasted and Flamini moved to AC Milan without any money passing between the two clubs. A player worthy of a +£10 million price tag had slipped away and Arsenal hadn’t even got a penny.
Since then there have been various other examples such as Kolo Toure, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri, all now Premier League Champions with Man City. Whilst they have individually had differing levels of success, Manchester City were able to take Toure and Clichy on at ridiculously low prices.
Luckily for Arsenal, Man City were freely spending last summer so they managed to recoup some money for Nasri, but the damage caused to the team at the beginning of the season could have been catastrophic had they not turned their situation around through spirited performances.
Arsenal fans have suffered from board level ineptitude and are now facing the worst case to date with the Robin Van Persie saga. Here is a high quality striker in the prime of his career, coming off the back of a record breaking season, where at times he carried the team through to achieve results.
In today’s market, a Van Persie with 3 years on his contract would be worth £30 million minimum, yet we’re hearing of bids below £20 million being tabled.
Signing players on long term contracts may not guarantee that they will stay at your club for the length of the contract but it gives more leverage in the transfer market when selling and that is where Arsenal seem to have struggled. Short-term decisions have been made and as a result nobody has kept an eye on the long-term consequences.
Tying up Koscielny for the long term, as well as the recent progress in securing Rosicky on a new contract and opening negotiations with Alex Song, show that Arsenal are finally standing up and showing that they won’t let themselves get in the same pickle they find themselves in with Van Persie now.
image: © Ronnie Macdonald
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