Should Arsenal have persuaded Tielemans to snub Monaco?

Youri Tielemans has revealed that he had wanted to join Arsenal, but didn’t believe he would have had enough chances in the first-team.

The young Belgian has been under the watchful eye of many big clubs across Europe in recent seasons, having broken into the Anderlecht first-team at the tender age of 16.

Tielemans clocked up 119 league starts for the Belgian side in his four years from his debut before joining Monaco this summer, and revealed that he had previously favoured a switch to Arsenal instead.

The international midfielder said: “I knew not much was going to change with Arsenal’s squad.

“Their management wanted to keep the same group of players together in order to finish high in the Premier League.

“I had to be honest with myself and take a look at the midfielders Arsenal have got. They are top-class players.

“I knew that I would not get many first-team chances with them, so I didn’t give any more thought to joining them.

“I never said no to any club. But I made it clear where I wanted to go.”

We currently have Granit Xhaka, Aaron Ramsey, Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere and Mohamed Elneny vying for a first-team role in the centre of the field, while Santi Cazorla will also add to our options when returning from injury, and you can’t help but understand Tielemans thoughts.

I’m not convinced by Coquelin’s place in our squad any longer however, and would much prefer to have replaced him with the 20 year-old, but Francis is barely a regular starter either.

It remains to be seen whether Tielemans is ready to bench either Ramsey or Xhaka, but he most definitely looks like he has the potential to be better than the pair in the near future.

Would Tielemans have challenged for a first-team role? Should we have persuaded him that he could have played a part in our first-team squad?

Pat J

Tags Anderlecht Arsenal Monaco Tielemans

6 Comments

  1. Yes a midfielder is badly needed and was really evident last night. Out of all our midfielders Elneny is the first on the team sheet as hes disciplined mobile and usually plays it safe, Xhaka is a complete liabilty god knows who many times he misplaced simple passes same with Ramsey whom people here love because he can run around like a headless chicken for 90 mins. Ideally for now Wenger will use a midfield 2 of either Elneny and Wilshere for games we should win and Elneny and Coq for the tougher away games. Ramsey can play further forward and rotate with Iwobi and Welbeck for the forward positions. Did anyone else get infuriated just looking at Ozil last night? His demanour was worse than ever when he came on? He needs to be banished to the reserves I feel atleast with Sanchez you still get the passion and drive.

  2. bucket of cow dung by pat J IMO

    whose teilesman?

    wilshere was avergae in bournsmouth

    elneney is just getting his confidence back

    xaka is crap…he plays all the time,cant dribble,is slow,cant pass, can shoot but doesnt…

    carzola hasnt played in ages so we can say what he has to offer…but on his day hes world class.
    ramsey star comes off and on…

    then you pick and single out coqlin…i smell cow dung in this your article…yes coqlin can be of and on..but on his day he puts in a superb shift.

    next time..try being more objective and drop sentiments in the back pocket

    1. What the hell are you on about?

      The article quotes Tieleman as to why he didn’t join Arsenal, and then asks if he was right to snub Arsenal in favour of A.S Monaco due to playing time.

      In fact the article states the writer thinks he has the potential to displace Xhacha or Ramsey in the future, so no sentiment there.

      You need to wipe the “cow dung” from your eyes and re-read the article s l o w l y.

  3. Xhaka is just making mistake after mistake at the moment. I can’t believe he starts every week.

    If we were playing a better team last night they would have punished us for the amount of times we gave the ball away in the middle of the park.

  4. I’ve been calling for teilemens for 3 seasons now he is just astalented as deli Ali and is equality to jack, elneny and coq at the age of 20 he is a future world class player and would be the perfect santi replacement he reminds me of modric

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