Arsenal to seal Schneiderlin deal but Coquelin NOT at risk

After putting in a rare bad performance for Arsenal in the horrendous Champions League debacle against Monaco last week, there were inevitably questions raised again about Francis Coquelin. The French midfielder has been brilliant since his early recall from a loan spell at Charlton, but his years of failing to break through will keep the fans wondering whether his recent form is just a phase.

Well even though it is being reported by the Daily Star that Arsene Wenger and his transfer elves are close to agreeing the summer transfer of our long term transfer target Morgan Schneiderlin, with personal terms apparently already agreed, it does not mean that Coquelin´s place is at risk.

For one thing, he has already overtaken his fellow Frenchman Mathieu Flamini in the pecking order and if anyone goes, it will surely be the player in his second spell at the club. And for another, Coquelin and Schneiderlin are not mutually exclusive. Remember that the Saint often plays alongside Wanyama at the minute, to great effect.

Yes they are both central midfielders but Coquelin is much more defensively minded while Schneiderlin is more of a deep lying playmaker, like our own Mikel Arteta. Not only is there room in the Arsenal squad, and team, for both of them, it is imperative that Arsene Wenger has this sort of option and cover as we know only too well how an injury or 12 can damage your season.

Tags Arteta Flamini

36 Comments

  1. I don’t care about the players we sign (or don’t sign anymore). What’s the use of signing all the players in the world, when you have a coach who doesn’t know how to use them?

    I have lost the desire to see Arsenal games these days. It’d be wise for all parties involved if Wenger stepped down come the season’s end. He has lost it; sad as it is to say.

    1. That is the most retarded comment I have seen on this site.some arsenal fans just don’t know what they want.Morgan will boost our midfield fosho,we need a top striker to compete with giroud. But still giroud is my main man.he is a strong and confident lad.

      1. i wouldnt call it retarded – he is just frustrated -like many on here.

        i personally would like wenger to bring in a coach to head up new training regime, new ideas come in, fresh bit of impetus.
        he is still our manager- but like carlos querioz with fergie someone come in with something different
        but wengers ego wouldnt accept that-thats my issue.

      2. What was wrong with that comment. In which universe did Ozil flop? Yeah that is right, in Wengerland.

    2. Agreed. No amount of top talent can save Arsenal unless we get a top manager.
      the Wenger ain’t it.

    3. If only this site were populated with more intelligent discourse. Answer the bloody article rather than ranting about what you think is important. From time to time, there’s good discussion but too often this site is dominated by asinine comments like yours!!!

  2. Madrid under Wenger won’t be the same force, time for him to go. We not going to improve under him, rather get a younger more hungry manager, sooner rather than later.

    1. Wenger would never be let within 50 miles of RM. They are a performance driven club and understand that by investing to gain success on the pitch helps in turn to sell their brand.

      We on the other hand seem to have an infrastructure based on business alone without suffecient investment in creating a winning football team (and I don’t mean just buying the occasional landmark signing).

      1. That’s just it though. Alexis and Ozil were just the occasional landmark signing. They were two marque signings made in back to back summers that indicate a complete shift in the transfer policy at Arsenal. To further boot the shift idea, is that Arsene signed what we all know is likely to be his last contract as Arsenal’s manager. In line with this idea, are both the signings, the team’s current construction, and the recent news that Arsenal are interested in Juve’s Fabio Paratici (their sporting director and transfer expert). If that news is indeed valid, I think in combination with everything else that has occurred (and it makes sense in combo), it’s clear the club is setting up for longevity. Wenger will move forward (whether it be into Arsenal’s administration or not), and the club will be left with the legacy he has helped create. For sure, Arsene wants to leave nothing but a positive legacy. He hopes to win all the trophies possible before his retirement, regardless of our frustrated EPL run this season, and the abysmal game versus Monaco last week. The point being, try and look at everything that is going on at the club. Then I think it’s clear what direction Arsenal is attempting to head towards. Who our next manager will be, only time will tell. In the meantime, I sure do hope Arsene wins an EPL and CL before his time’s up. COYG!!!

  3. Apparently the parking situation at the medical facility is better than at the training facility. Explains the injury crisis.

    1. Do you mean the rock solid training pitches designed to jolt joints and muscles?
      That coupled with antiquated training regimes can’t help our cause?

      *Not hating just stating

      1. anyone who finishes there point with a rhyme- gets a thumbs up from me 🙂

        #eminemisagooner

    1. no he wont be ‘on a free’ he ‘will be free’ in 5 years…on probation
      whats the sentence for statutory r*pe?

      damn adam, not a good look

  4. I am still haunted by how small did Monaco players make Arsenal look, even Le coq was being bullied by Kondogbia and the other guy in the midfield

    1. The problem is that Coquelin can’t do it all by himself. Those fools went out thinking Coquelin could do it by himself while they were hunting in packs.

      1. need 2nd quality dm. no arteta/flam. sorry. + when coq is injured what would we do?

    2. We should buy kondogbia if at all possible. This guy is a future Paul pogba without the hefty price tag (YET!).

      Bag him and Morgan and we are all of a sudden a much more serious proposition.

  5. Schneiderlin is a rare beast. He’s a B2B and a DM. We have 4 players who are really B2B or CAM, but none who are B2B DMs. Schneiderlin is more like a classic CM – a player who can defend, and attack, and switch between on a knife edge. Kondogbia, though I haven’t watched much, seems to be a similar vein. Coquelin is a DM though and doesn’t have the qualities to attack really (he can do a quick burst but his movement and passing isn’t quite up to scratch). We need at least 1 player (preferably 2) who can occupy either the B2B or DM position we currently hold. Jack, Santi, Rambo, Rosicky ALL play in the CAM or B2B area and none can play the DM role. Really we want 1 specialist for DM and CAM (Coq/Ozil) and then players to compete for all three roles and rotate depending on what we need in the game.

    For example:

    You need to play attacking: B2B DM + B2B CAM + CAM
    You need to play defensively: DM + B2B DM + B2B CAM
    You need to play on the counter: B2B DM + B2B DM/CAM + B2B CAM

    There is also all sorts of permeatations for injuries and such too.

    SO who should we sell to allow for this:

    Diaby + ?

    Probably Flamini is the second to go BUT who knows? We should have additional squad space with the dead weight of Pod leaving (though I’d like a LW please) but I imagine we’d need to offload 1 midfielder just for play time. IF Flamini were to go and we bough Schneiderlin and 1 other B2B DM (Kondogbia?) then our midfield would consist of:

    DM: Coquelin
    B2B DM: Schneiderlin, Kondogbia, Arteta
    B2B CAM: Wilshere, Rambo, Santi, Rosicky
    CAM: Ozil

    That would be a lovely situation if you ask me. Even with injuries we’d be very well insulated. It would take 4 injuries at least to rule out a position and require someone to play out of position. I wouldn’t say any of these players are poor quality either. The most likely situation is you have to sell one though because you can’t bench that much quality! Or someone gets winged…something we really don’t need!

    1. Apart from Flamini, Diaby and Poldi rarely plays and make no difference who replace them…….

  6. Even if we had Schneiderlin or the best DMF on earth in the monaco game, we’d have still lost that night…Le Coq, like the rest of his teammates were tactically outclassed by monaco. Look at the Loserpool/shitty game ova the weekend where Yaya toure(rock of shitty) and the whole of shitty were kept in isolation due to the tactical maneuvered plan by rodgers……Truth is: We underestimated Monaco and we payed dearly for it. We may put up and impressive display in the return Leg but I don’t see us winning that tie via a “3goal margin”. I’ve longed forgotten about that match and our champions league aspirations this season. Left for me, we should focus on finishing 3rd(even 2nd, cos we are just a few pts behind city who are clearly not in the best of form ATM) in the league and retaining the FA Cup trophy, cos based on chelsea’s celebration on winning the league cup, A TROPHY IS A TROPHY regardless the competition.

    1. id LOVE to know what wenger says to his players before big games. my hunch is that he is nervous & transmits that nervousness to his players. there seems to be a systematic effect on many of the players: its not possible that they all individually became sh*t . he should outsource the before-game speech to bould or henri or some motivational type.

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