French defender admits serious Arsenal transfer talks

Arsene Wenger admitted even before the January transfer window that he intended to bring in at least one defender to shore up Arsenal’s decimated back line, and so it came to pass, with the Brazilian Gabriel arriving with plenty of time before deadline day.

But it seems that Wenger was keeping his options open in case the Gabriel deal fell through )or he failed to get a work permit) and one of the other reported targets was St. Etienne’s Loic Perrin. The 29 year-old has now admitted that there were serious talks with Arsenal, and he would have jumped at the chance to move to the Emirates.

Perrin was reported as saying yesterday: “There were serious contacts via my agent. I think I was on a shortlist but not at the very top apparently. A transfer in this window, it is difficult. But it is difficult to refuse Arsenal.

“I have always said that if I have to leave St Étienne, one day, it would be for a bigger club, a club that plays Champions League. A club like Arsenal, I don’t think many Ligue 1 players would refuse.”

I’m sure they wouldn’t, but I also got the feeling that most JustArsenal readers were not very impressed with our link with Perrin, especially as he had never played anywhere except at St. Etienne and had last played for France as an Under-21 prospect.

Admittedly, if Arsenal had not managed to complete the signing of Gabriel then perhaps the 29 year-old Perrin could have done a job as a makeshift stopgap, but, as I said at the time, I could have imagined him just being another new Sebastien Squillaci….

Tags Gabriel Perrin

13 Comments

  1. France all of a sudden are producing good defensive players eh? Varane, Zouma, Debuchy, our own Boss…. interesting.

    1. LOL – you had to go and spoil that list didn’t you TG. First full game I saw Mangala I was sold – the next 5 or 6 I was WTF, £32M for that! He might make it, we’ll have to wait and see.

      1. yea. He is a very physical player, an athletic player, but has not got his basics right. I am happy atleast Stoke didnt buy him. That would have been a nightmare.

  2. I personally think we have enough defenders now, perhaps a good young left back could be added, if ormonde-ottewill is released this summer?

    If Jenkinson coming is back we will have

    Jenkinson bellerin debuchy chambers hayden mertesacker Gabriel koscielny monreal gibbs

    That is already 8 players that can play centre back, 6 that can play right back and 4 that can play left back (Gabriel and bellerin both played there)

    The best solution would be bring in mings or gaya and turn hayden into a Dm, which I thinking his best position anyway. I think hayden, coquelin and bielik would be great depth and competition for the dm role for the next 10 years.

    1. Indeed there’s plenty to choose from at the back, how times have changed so quickly haha

      I don’t know about you guys, but I’m VERY glad this transfer didn’t go through. Would’ve been another settlement for a squad player again while we got a near future top defender instead!

    2. @atid I agree with you there. I see Hayden as a DM. Mings as the up and coming left back and Centre back. In my opinion Jenkinson should be sold to fund the Mings move. We have plenty of players capable of right back. LB is more of a problem as Gibbs is injured so often.

      Schneiderlin our new DM for summer. Which should give us 4 players to fight for this spot. Lets not keep Arteta.

  3. i think perrin messed it up for himself when he started talking to the press we all know wenger doesn,t like to air his dealings!!

  4. Off topic wilshire must be pushing wengers patience to the limit he has not taken his game to the next level yes he has had injuries but when playing he has been very poor and the only headlines he is making is for the wrong reason! With everyone fit he is not good enough to be first choice can see him spending long periods on the bench is it time to cash in on jack? I dont see him as a threat that is going to come back and haunt us even if sold to another prem league club!!!

    1. @dan, I think it makes Wengers job all the more easy. currently dont play Jack. give smoking as an excuse I dont mind, cause currently I wouldnt change our team players and setup.

  5. Wilshere is a good player as we always have injuries. However what if we get good money for him to fund an upgrade.

  6. There’s no way we can keep Ozil, Wilshere, Ramsey and Coquelin all happy. One will have to leave. (I didn’t mention Cazorla, Arteta, Flamini as they’re all above 30 and won’t be here long term)

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