Francis Coquelin does like so many other players in our side, manage to do his job rather silently on the pitch, without probably getting the praise they deserve. Coquelin is a player with many strengths, although of course he is prone to his occasional moment of hotheadedness. He is however largely a player who doesn’t put a foot wrong in his performance and for the last three seasons now, he’s been a consistent performer and impressive player in the team.
A day after Hector Bellerin revealed his intentions to stay with the Gunners for many more years to come, his teammate Coquelin has followed in the youngsters footsteps to pledge his long term future to the club. Coquelin hasn’t gone as far as to sign a new contract with the club, but the French midfielder had a recent interview with L’Equipe in which he revealed his desire to remain at Arsenal for as long as he can.
The report was then picked up by SkySports, with Coquelin saying: “I think I’m already at a very, very big club. And I’m a person who is loyal to my club, I came here very young, I owe them a lot.
“So from the moment things are done well, my inclination is to stay at Arsenal for as long as possible.
“But then there has to be that desire on both sides. But spending the rest of my career at Arsenal would make me very proud.”
When Coquelin made his return to Arsenal, the Gunners were at a desperate point in midfield. The team needed more presence in the middle of the park after an injury crisis and Coquelin brought that much needed steel. It was extremely lucky that Arsenal still had Coquelin on the books, after rumours emerged later on that the club had intended to sell the Frenchman in the summer transfer window prior to his Gunners breakthrough. Wenger made a bold, yet rather desperate decision to recall Coquelin from his loan and the manager had to have faith in him to bring the team the strength it desired in midfield. Thankfully it was a move that paid off for all parties and Coquelin has become an established member of the squad.
Although Coquelin may not quite get the same praise today that he was used to when he first joined back up with the team in 2014, he is a well established member of the team and he’s still highly valued by the club. Competition for places in midfield has become highly competitive and as a result there is more rotation in the central position. However despite this, Coquelin seems to be the regular starter amongst all of the players, with the likes of Ramsey, Xhaka, Cazorla and Elneny being the players finding themselves more in and out of the side than the Frenchman.
It’s great to see such loyalty from players in this modern era of football, especially as the game is so highly driven by money nowadays. I think so long as Coquelin continues to put in the strong performances that we’ve seen from him these last three seasons, then the Gunners will be happy to keep him on the books for as long as they can.
By AH
What does it even matter? We’ve drawn three on the trot our seasons’s pretty much over boo hoo 🙁 (sarcasm!!!!)
Seriously… Reading through all these comments you’d think we’d lost three not drawn three tricky as they come fixtures. Unbeaten since first day of the season, 3 pts off top of the table and we’re nowhere near top gear. Ask anyone, any real football fan and they’ll tell you every single team in the world has good patches and bad throughout the season. We’re not playing well and still knicking and grinding out points. Please FFS, stop spreading the toxicity and negativity every time a results isn’t optimal. Get behind the team.
Anyone thought Wilshere would have been good to have in today’s game? Since Cazorla broke down, we haven’t anyone to boss and control that midfield. Our midfield is crying for someone who can carry the ball, without losing it.
Wilshere just runs until he loses the ball
Le Coque is a solid guy and is saying all the right things. It wasn’t a bad game actually. Drawing with Spurs, Man U and PSG, the champions of France isn’t bad. Folks talk about us not playing well but they seem to miss something. First, these were games against top quality opposition. They were never going to lie down and have us walk all over them. Secondly, look at the games against Man U and PSG. Man U played what was arguably their best game of the season yet and all they could do was draw with us. We were rubbish but still didn’t lose the game. PSG on the other hand has played us twice now and created more chances but still couldn’t beat us. Spurs is out but we have qualified for the next stage. Not bad. It is not like we are going to win the Champions league anyway so finishing first or second doesn’t make that much of a difference to me. You get major hope from knowing that you can actually win the tournament. Even if we finished first in our group, we could still end up getting Bayern Munich or something. The path to the champions league trophy leads through teams like Juventus, Bayern, Barcelona and the two Madrids. How do we navigate through these teams With players like Jenkinson and Ramsey? So we are doing ok considering.
Wilshere for Santi? No.. He doesn’t retain possession. He can dribble pass players but will either fall or lose the ball. He plays good one-two at times. On his day, he can be awesome but……
This team can cope without Santi. There’s something the team ain’t doing which is playing to players strength. Anyway, I still believe in the team. Players will be back Santi, Bellerin and that guy Welbeck. Mertsacker as well.
Coquelin has become crucial to our game plan. He has improved beyong all recognition and we shoud be grateful that he is loyal to the club.
A future legend, along with Bellerin.