This is a prime opportunity for Arsenal to show their mettle and battle the demons of the past.

Following Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat away to CSKA Moscow in 2006, Thierry Henry said, hauntingly, that "Arsenal were not a big club yet" – well within a year of their loss in the Champions League final in Paris. Henry’s words were clearly a feeling of anger at Arsenal not getting the luck of the draw in the way others do, but in a slightly different context, those words by the then club captain would have been equally befitting had they come at any point over the past two seasons.

But that’s where Arsenal need to prove they’ve turned a corner. The club are well accustomed to important names within the dressing room expressing a desire to leave; the knockout blow, however, comes through the lack of fight against those who wish to cherry pick Arsenal’s best players each summer. It really shouldn’t matter what players say, and it is very much about clubs taking power back.

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Koscielny is apparently off, based on recent comments in an interview with Eurosport. Honestly, it seems like a lot made out of nothing. Sure, the player wants to win trophies, but the insecurity among Arsenal supporters doesn’t stem from Koscielny’s comments, rather it's due to history and the weak position the club seem to hold in the market.

The biggest issue here is that Arsenal need to nip these sorts of things in bud before they’re blown out of proportion. The club need to take a stand, more against rival clubs than their own players, and make it abundantly clear that departures will only go ahead when the club are comfortable and are more than willing to sanction them.

I don’t see too much of a problem with what Koscielny said, but of course you’d have to take it in context. The player wants to win trophies in his career. Well, Arsenal supporters want the club to win trophies; it’s hardly breaking news. The player, naturally, will be made aware of other clubs being options for him in the near future, but Arsenal shouldn’t have to buy star players just to appease those already at the club. Koscielny didn’t arrive as a star player, and for that I don’t believe he’d angle for a move based on that premise alone.

But it has become an easy get-out clause for players at the club. Once one key player puts that line forward and gets his move away the rest will follow. Cesc Fabregas did it, Thierry Henry too, and Robin van Persie. But how much can the club win in the months of July and August? Koscielny at the moment is showing ambition and a desire to reach the highest level of his playing career. Shouldn’t that be encouraged? After all, you’re unlikely to see Marouane Chamakh or Sebastien Squillaci kick up a fuss about trophies, predominantly because they know their career is at its very best at Arsenal, even if they make little to no contribution to the first team.

It also needs to be highlighted, ahead of everything else Koscielny said, that he preceded the rest of his interview with: “I’m happy at Arsenal.” It’s funny how things like that get overlooked. But once again it boils down to the insecurity held by the supporters over another key figure potentially leaving.

This summer Arsenal want to make waves in the transfer market, but they also need to move on from the position where others around England or Europe feel they have a right to the club’s best players. Don’t give the Barcelonas or Manchester Citys an inch. Yes, the club needs marquee signings, but not just as a means to settle current players. Building in football doesn’t always have to be via modern or conventional methods: a £5million signing is just as capable of scoring 20 league goals as a £30million signing.

For those who want to look at this situation with a clear view, Koscielny hasn’t done or said anything wrong. It’s at best a nothing statement that has been used by the media to try and create another ‘summer of uncertainty.’ This is all fairly routine and we’ve seen it before. But the story here is that Arsenal have a platform this summer to move on from positions such as this, rebuilding their reputation and shaking the easy target off their back.

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