Francis Coquelin is probably the first real Defensive Midfielder that Arsenal have had since Gilberto Silva left the club in 2008. He was the “Invisible wall” alongside Patrick Vieira that helped the Gunners to become Invincibles, and can you believe he was still playing professional football up to 2013.
He now spends his time helping youngsters in football with Street Child United, and he works in fundraising and as an ambassador for the charity. Naturally as he is in London, he goes to visit Arsene Wenger at the training ground, and he has volunteered to come back to cover for Coquelin. “I told him I was ready,” Gilbert said in the Guardian. “Since I left if I am not wrong Arsenal didn’t have a player to fill that role until him,”
“They had some other players in that position like Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Flamini, and before that Cesc Fàbregas. But not this type of player, the guy who holds the piano to let the others play. I hope he recovers well and in time to help Arsenal this season. They will need him for sure.”
“It’s a very hard time for the club and for the manager to organise the team, facing lots of injuries. Arsène has so many problems and doesn’t have so many players. The players must respond to that.
“This is a crucial moment, where the season can basically be decided. If they keep to their strengths in this period to keep consistency they have a good chance. It’s come to a time for Arsenal to win the league again. It would be a good gift to Arsène for what he has done over nearly 20 years.”
Arsenal are having their usual glut of injuries, and they are going to be strugling to keep up with the League leaders until we get some of our squad back. Yes we can all pray that Wenger can find some players in the transfer window, but we still have six games to play until January comes along. So couldn’t we snap up Gilberto on a two monh contract?
Onwards and upwards
The past is the past
I wish certain players hadn’t left like Flamini, Hleb, Fabregas, Van Persie etc
But lets look for new players who are great at what they do instead of our past players
Flamini left? ?
Yes.
He left in the mid 2000’s when he was at his best and came back a few years ago.
You joker! ??
Why put him in there?
Why isn’t Henry in your” I’m so sad they left” list?
You mention these player’s then go on to say lets look for new players who are great at what they do, instead of our past players ? like wtf!
did you honestly believe Gilberto Silva was..? ??
Do you remember Terry O’Neil?
What about Liam Brady’s goal against the spuds, that curled left and right before hitting the roof of the net?
As if I didn’t know that Flamini left because of being subbed off in the champions league final against Barcelona,
He was playing as a LB that day.
That’s the reason why he didn’t renew his contact at Arsenal…. he was butt hurt about that.
have we come to a point where we would need Gilberto silva back?………
.
Oh! how have we fallen!
i thought this was a mess around post.
bring back bergkamp etc.
then ur last sentence…couldnt we snap up gilberto on 2 month loan???
facepalm
leave the legend alone. doesnt need to ruin his gd name here cos we were inept in the transfer market
Right ? United might as well bring back Vidic and Keane smh. Wake up Arsenal fans we need young blood, players that we can rely on, not Arteta, not Flamini, not Chamberlain, not Giroud, not Walcott and definitely not Welbeck. WE NEED PROVEN QUALITY, keyword : PROVEN
arsenal needs to fly wenger into the moon. Well for the love of being stingy to save some fuel, cameron can go aswell.
I would like to see one of our young players like Bielik or Chambers make 6 appearances during the 6 games you mention, preferably starting at least 3 of them and playing 60 minutes of those games they start. And 20 minutes in those games to come in as substituents.
If these two young players are Arsenal material they will be better players after those 6 games. There are enough 17, 18, and 19 year old players who have made a name for themselves at the highest level.
The way things are going, wenger will soon have no other choice but to play them all.
Callum Chambers will be a beast in that position.
…said no one
Wenger said it
Oh that’s it….. always blaming poor old deluded wenger ? pick on someone your own size buddy ?
Robin Vanpayslip i tend to agree i think CC can make it in DM because his quite aggressive as long as his not the last man defending he will do fine,
Sign him up …Why not?
I’m sure he can put a 15 minute shift in and then spend the rest of his 2 months cheering up Coquelin and Cazorla.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger fears price hikes in January transfer window amid worries Santi Cazorla is out until March
HUH excuses has started not to spend again, he has to remember that we are fortunate that we can afford to spend and that there is a transfer window available for him to rescue our season
Glass half full or Glass half empty
You beat me to it
I just read what he said
He should know that in January prices are inflated because it’s mid season and more difficult to get players.
Wenger could have avoided our situation by signing players in the summer. He did not sign a single outfielder this summer
Name a single top club in Europe who didn’t sign a outfield player this summer other than Arsenal. Absolutely ridiculous
exactly he took a gamble and it back fired so he has to pay like all the big clubs do in mid season,
are we a big club or not? can someone explain this to me?
if not then i will expect less and stop buying merchandises to new born’s and kids in the family to try and convert them in to Arsenal supporters save them disappointment
We are now in the third tier of “big clubs” in Europe due to our lack of winning a major trophy recently and more importantly us not winning the CL ever.
Based on success in recent years my analysis is:
1st tie – Barca, Bayern, RM, maybe Juve and PSG too
2n tie – Chelsh1t, Man City, Athletico, Man U
3rd tie – Arsenal, Olympiakos, Galatasary, Napoli, Roma, Ajax, etc
I wouldn’t trade non of them for Arsenal though, so keep winning souls for the Gunners mate, someday things will change (when you know who leaves) and this pain will be worth something atleast
I believe he is 39 years old, 39!!