Arsenal will unveil Lorient centre-half Laurent Koscielny on Thursday afternoon after reports in France claimed a deal had been done.


Arsene Wenger has been desperate to add to his back line all summer and the deal for the 24-year-old has been expected all summer but it has taken some time to go through.
The deal is said to be worth £8.5m for the player who is thought to have already been training with his new team-mates at the club's complex in London.
Lorient said on Tuesday that the deal would be ratified within "hours or days," with the club's general director Serge Areguian saying the hold-up was due to "administrative details to be validated."

Arsenal Football Club is delighted to announce that Sead Hajrovic has signed professional terms with the Club.

Swiss Youth International defender Hajrovic, who turned 17 in June, signed for Arsenal as a scholar last summer, arriving from Grasshoppers Zurich in his home country.

Hajrovic enjoyed an impressive first season with the Club, being a regular in Steve Bould's FA Premier Academy League winning squad, making 12 appearances during the season, with his performances also earning him three appearances for the Club's Reserves.
                                                                                                   
Everyone at the Club is looking forward to Sead's continued contribution and development with Arsenal in the forthcoming years.

The Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger met up with a Kenyan commentator this week, Ampher Apidi, while working at the World Cup in South Africa, and for some reason granted him a personal interview.

He told Apidi that the two best players he had seen at the World Cup were Mesut Ozil, and surprisingly Giovanni Dos Santos, who is Carlos Vela’s team-mate in the Mexico side.

Apidi then asked him if there was a chance that those two players may be playing at the Emirates next season, and he replied: “You can only field 11 players at a time, but we will wait and see.”

He was also asked the obvious question about Cesc Fabregas! But the simple reply was: “I do not see him leaving soon.”

The one question that really caught my eye was when Apidi asked Wenger about the “goalkeeping problem” that cost the Gunners so many problems last season, and he said: “Manuel Almunia Rivero is a talented goalkeeper. In training, he is superb, the only problem is that he gets nervous on big matches, thereby making silly mistakes. After the World Cup, we will be making an announcement on goalkeeping.”

So what are we to make of that? Could it be Schwarzer coming in? Or will Fabianski be the new Number One?

thegoonblog.com can confirm that rumours about Mark Schwarzer having an issue in his medical tests before joining the club, are true.

However, on a second examination by an independent doctor they decided that the goalkeeper was fit to pass. It is understood that the club are still looking at other options to solve the goalkeeping situation even at this late stage of the deal – possibly meaning they are baulking over the reported £4 million transfer fee for a 37 year old at the tail end of his career.

A source close to the Grove hinted that the issue over the first medical was a knee problem that the ‘keeper has carried for a while, however it is questionable whether it infringes him on the pitch – the passing of the second set of examinations can be taken as proof that it is a small injury.

The goalkeeping situation is one that has been brought to light following the shocking form of both Manuel Almunia and Lucasz Fabianski last season, with Vito Mannone not trusted to challenge for the number one jersey and Wojciech Szczesny seen as too young it is clear that one way or another a new keeper is needed.

If the club to decide to go ahead with the signing of Mark Schwarzer the chances of the deal being announced before the return of Arsene are minimal – the club are thought to be watching SC Braga keeper Eduardo who has a buy out clause in the region of £3.5 million but he was in Genoa, Italy yesterday having talks with a view to a move. He has the final say over his final destination though so he is certainly not out the equation.