Koscielny Deal Gets Closer For Arsenal, France Crash Out Of World Cup

Good morning, it's going to have to be a relatively brief one as I'm off to work shortly, but that works out well because there's very little going on.

As reported by various sources yesterday, Arsenal have agreed to loan young midfielder Francis Coquelin   to Lorient , which you have to think paves the way for a deal to be struck for the transfer of Laurent Koscielny to Arsenal.

In the past few days we've seen suggestions that Arsenal are ready to come back with an improved offer to get their man, we've had indications that the player wants to play for us and now with the loan of Coquelin it's fairly clear to see that Lorient are willing to do business with us.

All of this would seem to tell us that Laurent Koscielny will be playing his football at Arsenal next season. Jolly good too, there will always be fans who want bigger names and bigger fees to be paid for more established players, and I'm not saying their point of view is without merit but by now we all know the way Arsene Wenger likes to operate in the transfer market.

He's done well in recent history with his defensiveve signings, Campbell, Vermaelen and Sagna being tremendous additions to the squad (granted, Silvestre's in there as well), so if Arsene Wenger rates Laurent Koscielny then that's good enough for me.

I don't think he would necessarily be the extent of our defensiveve additions this summer. We may yet lose a lot of players at the back in the next few weeks and it would be no surprise to me if we were still in the market for a defender after signing Koscielny .

I know the potential exodus of centre-halves is a matter of some concern for Arsenal fans but to me it doesn't seem like too bad a thing to me.

As I've said before, I'd be sorry to see Sol Campbell leave the club, he's done very well for us and still has something to offer in my opinion. But overall, it's clear that Arsenal's defending needs an overhaul.

A considerable change of personnel might help bring that about. I still think we need to looking at the way the team trains regarding defence, but maybe new people will help a new approach to come about.

It's not entirely down to the defenders of course, none of whom are bad players, but how the team defends as a unit is a problem. Having said that though, the defenders are the natural leaders and organisers when the team is on the back foot. If they're not doing that job as they should, the teams defending will suffer.

I think the point I'm hovering around here is that a shake up of the defence may not be the worst thing in the world.

Moving on, I'm loath to discuss Harry Redknapp but apparently he thinks   Joe Cole   might have already signed for Manchester United. He said something similar a few weeks ago and to be honest I'm not inclined to believe that Mr Potato Head has the inside scoop here.

I think Joe Cole might have made his mind up certainly, but as to whether a deal is done with anyone, I'm not inclined to think so. There were reports that Cole was reluctant to leave London where he and his family are nicely settled, and if true that would seem to make Arsenal the most attractiveve option for him. We'll have to wait for England's elimination for the World Cup to find out for sure what he intends to do, so potentially, this time tomorrow we could find out!

As quickly as the rumours of Arsenal moving for  Riccardo Montolivo   surfaced, they have been dashed. The player's agent has dismissed the rumour, and if you can't trust a football agent then who can you trust? As I said yesterday, the idea of him being brought in to replace Cesc Fabregas seems a little far fetched to me, given that they're totally different kinds of players.

Four of our players were knocked out of the World Cup yesterday as France rounded off their dismal campaign with defeat to the host nation South Africa yesterday. Sad for them yes, but quite hilarious to see Raymond Domenech  get the send-off he deserves.

And with that, there really doesn't seem to be anything else going on. Not at this time of morning anyway. Told you it'd be a quick one! More (hopefully in more ways than one) tomorrow, have a good day!