Former Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny has finally apologised to his former fans following his acrimonious departure last summer.
The France international effectively went on strike 12 months ago ahead of a pre-season tourh of America to force his exit from the north London,
Koscielny had spent nine years at the Emirates but was reportedly upset with the way Arsenal handled his return to the side after nine months out with an Achilles injury which robbed him of a place in France’s World Cup winning squad.
The experienced centre-half was said to have been angered by the number of games he was asked to play in by Unai Emery and also felt the club had reneged on a promise to allow him to leave for free at the end of the 2018/19 campaign.
Arsenal eventually sold Koscielny to Bordeaux for a fee of around £4million but the 35-year-old caused controversy upon his arrival in the south of France.
At his unveiling, Koscielny took off his old Arsenal shirt to display the colours of his new club, a gesture that was branded disrespectful by hoards of Arsenal fans and club legend Ian Wright.
Reflecting on the video, Koscielny told local French media: ‘I had nine incredible years there, lots of memories with this club.
‘I know that my announcement video at Bordeaux caused a bit of a stir, I want to apologise to the fans for that, I didn’t expect it to affect them in the way that it did.’
William Saliba has also returned from his loan spell at Saint-Etienne, but the futures of Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Shkodran Mustafi, Calum Chambers and Rob Holding are yet to be determined with 10 days remaining of the transfer window.
