Arsene Wenger has heaped praise onto the Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin, who has been nothing short of amazing and a true revelation for what he has done since returning early from a loan spell towards the end of the last calendar year.
The Arsenal boss, in fact, reckons that there could have been no complaints about the performances of the feisty young Frenchman – even if the Gunners had paid close to a club record transfer fee to bring him in. But as reported in The Guardian, Wenger thinks that Coquelin´s terrific form, which has been a big factor in how well Arsenal have bounced back from a poor start, has gone largely unheralded because he was already a Gunner and did not cost big money.
The prof said, “The world has changed. The appreciation today of the quality of a player is just down to the money you spend. If we had bought Coquelin at Christmas for £40m, everyone would say, ‘What a signing.’ I am sorry he didn’t cost any money. He is still a good player.”
But however good he is, it appears that Wenger is still looking to sign a top quality central midfielder in the summer transfer window, if that was ever his intention in the first place of course. There was a plethora of Arsenal transfer rumours linking the club with players like Morgan Schneiderlin, Sami Khedira, William Carvalho and more last summer, with the media claiming that only a very stubborn resistance from Southampton had prevented Wenger getting his man. So it sounds like we could soon be seeing the France international at the Emirates.
Wenger said of his transfer plans, “It hasn’t changed a lot. What is for sure is Coquelin has shown he has the capacity to play for us and play a big part in the success of the team. I think nobody would dispute that his performances have been convincing and that he is ready for a fight – even if somebody comes in. Even if somebody else comes in, he will stay here. I extended his contract [in February]. That means I believe in him.”
Do you think that `somebody´ will be Schneiderlin? And how will the two fit into the squad and team?
The reason why we are still looking for a defensive midfielder is simple. Coquelin has been fantastic, but if he suffers an injury, can we rely on Flamini / Arteta to cover without lowering our ambition of winning the PL next season? No – and therefore Flamini / Arteta must be replaced by someone who are on the level we need as a title-challenging club – Like Kondogbia or the ones mentioned in the article. I think only trolls will claim that Coquelin is not good enough, but we dont win the league with the top XI alone.
The same goes with Giroud as well – Welbecks qualities have been proven to be elsewhere than on top for Arsenal.
I remember at the start of the season posting on here saying that we should get Coquelin back. I always knew te guy had great potential … Perhaps i’ll look into managment as a career now. Anyways i think Schniderlin would be a good buy, does everything well but his partnership with wanyama makes him better, added security. Carvhalo would also be great! Strong, imposing, good tackler and space to improve. krychowiak from Sevilla also has all those qualities but he’s also quick. Kondogbia is not a CDM and is more attacking and has bakayoko as a DM playig behind him. NEVER mention sami “missed 2 seasons through injury” khedira. Why would we want him?!
kondogbia is a cdm it states on every single website that mentions him and his stats and bio what his position is and they all say is cdm.
he has all the skills for a d/m big strong great tackling skills and great engine and reading of the defensive side of the game + great passing skills, he would be just perfect for our midfiled we still need a bit of height in the middle of the park, and drive from the deep areas diaby is most likely not going to get a new contract, as he is running out of game time to impress wenger so he would most likely be released.
this summer with a few others kondogbia will be the perfect height replacement for diaby at 6″2 he would ad the needed muscle in the middle.
coyg
@ young gun
When Bakuyoko was first brought in the summer the intentions were for him to be the DM and kondogbia to play alongside of him with the freedom to go up the pitch. But for a while now Bakuyoko hasn’t been playing but kondogbia has been mainstay in that cdm role alongside Fabinho, toulalan. Just cause he ventures forward in his current set up does not mean he is not a DM
Strengthen the spine: striker, defensive midfielder,central defender, and goalkeeper!
If you want to win the title or challenge for the Champions League, these areas must be strengthened! 3rd place and an early exit from CL is not good enough. If you want to keep the status quo and struggle every year just to qualify for the CL, then don’t make any moves to strengthen the spine of the squad.
Wont happen, we’ll maybe get Cech but Im betting there wont be any other big name signings with wenger saying this about Coquelin its his way of saying “I don’t need another CDM” Same as him saying he’s keeping the squad together means h’s not gonna look to hard at other prospects same as him saying “Thierry Henry Is wrong about Giroud” enas NO striker being brought in this summer.
i think de jong would be an excellent replacement for flamini.
he was the 3rd best player at ac milan(this season) who had a bad season and is available for free.he is similar style to coqulan but with better passing and more experience.
he is one of the best around at intercepting the ball,he likes to play the long throughball weve seen come to fruitation with ramsey and santi recently. His concentration is great, he is a winner and has leadership skills.
I may sound pessimistic but I am ready to bet with anyone out there that we wont win the Pl next year with Wenger in charge.Anyone interested?
Once all the favourites are fully healthy prepare to see the mess next year.
I think it will be between Chelsea and Man City if they get a new coach.Pellegrini is too naive to win another title.
Man U with Van Gaal will never win anything,the guy is like Wenger,washed up.
i think you might see wenger rise again hopefully keep the faith fellow gunner there is a new dawn around the corner lets push the team forward these last few games and see wenger work the magic in the market in summer and we will be rocking and rolling com aug and new season if not you can call me out in the next season and i will answer the charges against me honestly.
#wengerthephoenixfromtheashes
I doubt it’ll be Morgan. Our most linked players rarely end up joining our club.
HA!!!!!!! This is from a manager who until the injuries we had left him with little or NO alternative but to bring Coquelin back from his loan spell at Charlton and who up until that point was stating that he did not see a future for the player at the club. What worrys me the most is that this is Wengers roundabout smoke and mirrors way of saying that he is NOT going to buy another defensive midfielder, or at least that’s the way I’m reading it, Arsene Wenger has a long term strategy as far as the transfer window is concerned and he is always saying things months in advance that he can then backtrack to when he is criticized and Ill bet this is no exception. I really rate Coquelin and he has improved 100% but as almost all the gunners fans know and at least all of the pundits are saying we need another of his ilk on the books in order to have cover in case Coquelin gets injured or banned and this needs to be addressed along with the Striker problem which in my mind is the reason we have fallen short again in the seasons progress. We really should have progressed further in the UCL and finished second in the league, as it is we didn’t and we wont so this needs to be addressed.
have to disagree if wenger said he hasnt changed his transfer plan it still means we will go for another dm. if he values coqulan as a 40m dm then do we need to spend big in this area?
someone like de jong would come in and make and instant impact and offer that bit of competitvnes that will help coqulan to get better and become world class. he is also a step up from flamini and has played very well this season
he is a free agent aswell
Coquelin isnt the reason we want a DM transfer. Flamini is.
Simple and spot on.
Coquelin is good but no Matic
Chelsea has better GK, better DM, better midfield and attack. That’s why they are 1st
If you are happy with top 4 we have a good enough team. If you want 1st don’t expect it without 3-4 more WC players
I have not seen anything special that Matic does that Coq cannot do, if not better.
The Man U game was the only game I’ve seen Coq get beat in the midfield. Fellaini probably had a vendetta against him since Coq owned him in the previous meeting. But besides that, Coq has been stellar. So like @Mick said, we aren’t looking for a Coq replacement. We are looking for a Flamini replacement.
have to second that matic is in europes top 5 players for players being dribbled past. he is a better passer and positinal awarness than coqulan
but coqulan is more combative,responsive and can move/cover quicker
Some will say ramsey/wilshere are the starters and coq is their back up but i think santi and coq have won out those spots. no one on are team has played defense this second half as well as coq even better than koc. The guy sticks his nose in everything watch sunderland game if he start he always close to the ball on defense or looking for the interception ive caught myself missing other stuff during the game because im watching how he plays. He is sanchez best friend when it comes to hustle. Im highly impressed this kid is the definition of a diamond in a rough. Best of luck to him.
Let either one go flamini/arteta/diaby , sparta prague is prob getting rosicky. So i see two opening atleast one for acadamy player and one for a signing. Think we’re def in the market 5-15m range. Think schne/carvalho/please god no khedia are all out.i wouldnt mind SONG coming back.
COYG
COYG
de jong >>flamini
fekir>>rosicky
diaby + arteta? ….schnederlin
We still need another DM/GK/CB/ST if we plan on closing the gap with Chelsea. Let’s not forget UTD will be spending big again, they’ve already signed depay and the season is not even over yet which shows how seriously they are. City will also spend big to bring in quality players so we have our work cut out for us, i am still fuming that wenger didn’t spend the 50 million to bring in Suarez but instead insulted Liverpool with a 40.1, how arrogant and irresponsible.
is depay any better than ox ?
@dennis
Some of you still don’t get it. And continue to use that “40mil+1pnd” for Suarez as some kind of weak azz’d attack on AW’s cred. He offered 40 mil and they rejected. He knew they were yankin his krank after that so he spit out the 1pnd jibe at them. That was neither insulting, arrogant or irresponsible. That was him simply sayin”Fck U 2″
Liverpool were full of sht then and they’re still full of sht. Look at how they’re tryin to make Sterling out to be the bad guy. When it was the board who handled the whole situation poorly. Then they trot out all of their has been players to sht on the young dude.
Bunch of bastidz…
Wow. The only change to our starting 11 for Sunderland is Gibbs instead of Monreal. Surprised Cazorla is starting, not as surprised that Walcott isn’t, but I think he should have. Regardless, it’s a game we should win anyways so it probably won’t matter.
Wait what? Wilshere is starting instead of Coquelin?? That’s pretty concerning for me. Sunderland will look to counterattack us and Coquelin is the man that stops that. I still think we’ll win but it’s concerning that Wenger doesn’t appear to recognise the importance of Coquelin.
Mert and koc looked so lonely tonight they needed help and coq would of done the job or made it easier….ospina was put to work what was his grade for tonight?