Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny is set to sign for Bordeaux, according to reports in the English and French media. The Ligue One side have been in talks with the Gunners about signing the 33-year-old.

It now appears that a transfer fee of €5m (£4.6m) has been agreed, with a medical having been scheduled for the centre-back’s move back to France.

Koscielny has spent nine years at Arsenal following his £8.5m move from Lorient, but his refusal to tour the United States this summer, in order to force a move away from the Emirates, means he will leave under a cloud.

The Frenchman’s departure will hasten the club’s efforts to sign a new centre-half before the transfer window closes. Manager Unai Emery has already said that the Gunners are actively looking for a new defender:

“We are speaking about the centre backs, but we have a lot of centre backs, we have good centre backs, and if we can sign one more centre back, it is because he is clearly better than we have.”

RB Leipzig’s Dayot Upamecano and Juventus’s Daniele Rugani are the two primary targets, but it appears neither deal will be straightforward. Another name may enter the fray before deadline day on Thursday.