Arsenal have decided how to handle the Laurent Koscielny situation

Arsenal will demand £8.8m from interested parties before they agree to sell Laurent Koscielny, according to the Evening Standard.

The Frenchman refused to join the rest of the Gunners squad in boarding a flight to the US for the start of the club's pre-season tour.

Koscielny wants to leave the Emirates Stadium this summer and had hoped that his nine years of service would see Arsenal agree to let him leave on a free transfer.

However, the north Londoners are refusing to be bullied by their club captain and have set an asking price of £8.8m.

Koscielny only has a year left to run on his contract and has reportedly attracted the interest of Lyon, Bordeaux and Rennes.

However, Arsenal are yet to receive any bids for the defender, whose hopes of returning to France remain in the balance.

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).