So after two long months, I’m back to writing about the club I love so much. As you’d expect from the international break, nothing much has been happening, except Germany and their continues woes post- Ozil. The Netherlands has been a nation on the decline, since they reached the World Cup final in 2010, but Ronald Koeman’s side put the Germans to the sword with three unreplied goals. Even that former Manchester United wasteman, Memphis Depay, was on peek Cristiano Ronaldo mode or something.
The biggest news from an Arsenal perspective is the retirement of club captain, Laurent Koscielny, from international football. Koscielny served his country 51 times, featuring in two European Championships (2012 & 2016) and the 2014 FIFA World Cup. A nasty injury suffered in May cost Koscielny his place in the 2018 FIFA World Cup and it must have hurt a lot, watching his countrymen lift the trophy.
He even admitted that it hurt him a lot missing on the mundial, and while a part of him was happy to see them win football’s biggest prize, his more evil side hoped they were eliminated. Typically, you would expect that retiring from his country clearly means that he wants to concentrate on playing regular club football, but it’s not so surprising to know that our captain is itching for a move back to Ligue 1 to as his career reaches its twilight. With the likes of Mustafi, Holding, Chambers, Mavropanos and this season’s new addition, Sokratis, in our ranks, we are quite stacked up with our fair share of centerbacks, but none can make up Koscielny’s experience and leadership.
He is expected to resume action some time in late November / early December and I’m pretty sure that Unai Emery has major plans for his captain this season. In recent seasons, Arsenal captains turned out to be bench warmers as they reached the ends of their careers with the club but I’m certain that such a fate will not befall Koscielny.
I wish him the best as he continues with his long recovery from injury.
Sayonara.
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