Barcelona to announce Antoine Griezmann signing on Monday, Manchester United prepare €80 million bid for Paul Pogba replacement and more: Transfer Roundup, 11 July 2019

Laurent Koscielny refuses to report for training, Arsenal release statement

Laurent Koscielny does not want to be at Arsenal beyond the summer

Laurent Koscielny's relationship with his current club Arsenal is getting strained. The Frenchman reportedly wants to leave the club as he enters the last year of his contract. Koscielny wants to be released as a free agent so that he can return to his native France.

Arsenal, however, went ahead and named him in their pre-season squad and he was supposed to show up for their tour to the United States on Thursday. Koscielny refused to budge and the club have now said that the Frenchman will be staying behind. Subsequently, the Gunners released an official statement. It reads as follows,

We are very disappointed by Laurent’s actions, which are against our clear instructions.

We hope to resolve this matter and will not be providing any further comment at this time.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad