Coquelin gets sold but Alexis is staying at Arsenal

All the Arsenal transfer rumours have been about Alexis Sanchez leaving and his possible replacements, but suddenly Wenger springs a surprise and sells Francis Coquelin to Valencia for 12m GBP. Wenger explained: “He goes to Valencia. He didn’t get enough games with us this season. He had an opportunity. I let him go.”

It seems strange especially as we seem to be lacking midfielders right now!

But Wenger also spoke about the Alexis Sanchez situation, and unless the Boss is telling porkies it looks like the Chilean will not be leaving this month, as Le Prof is still harbouring hopes that Alexis will sign a new contract before June.

Alexis only played the last 25 minutes at Chelsea last night, but Wenger insists that decision had nothing to do with any transfer talks. “The performance of Alexis Sanchez and the commitment does not depend on the duration of his contract, just depends on the fact when he’s on the football pitch he wants to play,” Wenger said.

“People don’t know Alexis Sanchez. This is a guy completely focused on playing football.

“Did you see how he came on today? How he warmed up? Like a player who wants to play football.

“He can make a difference between what’s going on outside and what’s going on on the football pitch.

“He doesn’t need to tell me he speaks to anybody else. He doesn’t need to alert the club. He can do it on his own.

“We live with facts, not with psychological theories. When you come on to the pitch you play football and give 100 per cent. That’s what he does.”

And as for Alexis signing a new contract, Wenger said: “I want him to stay for longer,”

“I have no problem if he signs with us now or in June.”

So it looks like Pep Guardiola is going to have to wait until the summer to get his man, but who else could Arsenal sell after Coquelin?

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34 Comments

  1. Seems like we won’t get ****.

    Funny how for years we were fed complete bulls*** like we don’t have so much money at our disposal like other clubs and yet can afford to let 80 millions worth of players go for free.

  2. Why though? I know he is not the best player but this is like with Gabriel. We dont have a big squad and money is not short. As for Sanchez. Give up on commenting about him. He made up his mind a long time ago and he is most deff not playing for Arsenal but rather for himself.

  3. Just to let you know we must buy a new midfielder. No use waiting for Santi to recover – he and his family moved back to Spain yesterday.

    DM

  4. Wenger deluded as usual. Sanchez is a shadow of the player he was before last summer, when his head was turned. Our team is seriously out of balance and it needs fresh ideas to make any difference to our predictable style of play..

  5. Wenger let Coquelin leave because he prefers to use 3-4-2-1 and 4-2-3-1, which use only two deep central midfielders. Besides, Wilshere, Ozil, Iwobi and Ramsey work better in the deep central positions, which means Arsenal still have plenty of options in those posts.

    What Arsenal are lacking is skillful players that can play well behind the striker. Sanchez is one of them and I still hope he will extend his contract before Arsenal decide to let him go.

    I think Arsenal would sell Walcott, Debuchy, Campbell, Akpom, Willock and Perez immediately, as soon as there are some offers. But before that happens, I want to see some new players, because Arsenal have sold Gibbs, Paulista and Coquelin in this season.

    1. Coq couldn’t save his Arsenal career. His best was dependent on the availability of Santi. Now that it is almost certain that Santi won’t be playing for us again, Coq has to go. I sense the club management is making space for a better quality player to come in.

  6. Breaking news from
    the Daily Arze.
    Mr Wenge’rs squad for next season.

    Gabriel Koscielney Mertesacker replaced by Holding Mavropanos+ Mustafi.
    Debuchy Gibbs and Monreal replaced by Chambers Niles and Kolasinac.
    Coquelin Elneny and Cazorla replaced by McGuane Wilshere+ Ramsey.
    Walcott and Chamberlain replaced by Iwobi and Reiss Nelson.
    Sanchez replacement Pavon 20 mill.
    Giroud and Perez replaced by Wellbeck and Akpom.
    Campbell Replaced by Nwakali.
    Jenkinson sold 10m not replaced.

    Sales and Salaries saved = 120m
    Buy a new CB. 30m max.
    Profit 90m.

    25 man squad.
    Cech Ospina Macey
    Bellerin Chambers Kolasinac Niles
    Mustafi Holding Mavropanos (New CB) 30m
    Xhaka McGuane Ramsey Wilshere
    Iwobi Nwakali Nelson Ozil Pavon Willock NKetiah
    Wellbeck Lacazette Akpom.

    Happy daze.

  7. Welbeck, Cech, Bellerin, Mustafi, Xhaka, Ramsey, Iwobi, Akpom can all leave! Bellerin, and Mustafi want out, and the rest are just not good enough.

    1. Mustafi, Cech, Bellerin, Xhaka and Ramsey are all much better than Holding and Chambers, though.

      I think preference of leaving should be given to those 2 plus Iwobi, Debuchy, Welbeck, and Akpom.

      Let’s hope contracts are finally out of Wenger’s hands. I’m sure Raul will know more than any of us here.

  8. Reports emerging today that the fee isn’t £12 million but £22 million.
    Reports about Theo going for around £20 million.

    £42 million.

    Enough for a single marquee signing.

    Reports are that AFC is looking to spend around £40 million on Malcom.

    Will that please some of the fans? Replacing Theo with Malcom?

    I would like AFC to spend something other than what they make in transfer sales, it is good that sales are happening and AFC have been getting respectable fees, credit to Gazidis in those sales. Time to spend though!

    If we are not spending anything but sales money for Malcom then shouldn’t that mean that AFC could drop another £40 million and aim for a top CB, not all of them will rocket up to £75 million…

    1. Malcolm for Theo will do for me – as long as it’s not my mate Malcolm who is really shite at football…anyone but him!

      1. PMSL!
        Still… We are talking about replacing Theo here, maybe you should recommend your mate to Wenger. He likes the odd gamble like SoNoGoals. XD

  9. Its so funny to see pep and klop use 2 speedy winger in both side, a tactic that wenger use in early 2000, when arsenal and wenger at the peek of performance.
    Now wenger is so obsesion with ball possesion

    1. Very valid point!
      All great attacking teams use speedy wingers
      Us not using this tactic is one of the reasons why we are so blunt in front of goal

    2. You’re so on point. Speedy cum skillful wingers will really bring us back to that glory days. I’m really not comfortable with the 3-5-2 adopted by Wenger cos it limits our attacks as we don’t have players to execute it perfectly. It sort of work towards the end of last season cos Chamberlain was deployed as our wingback and Monreal manning the other wing but now with Bellerin and Kolasinac (very predictable players with no set skills) it’s affecting us seriously. I really want Sanchez to stay but no player is bigger than our club hence we should let him go and try all we can to get two very good wingers at least and a center back. But what do I know?

    3. They use speedy skillful wingers.
      Wenger used Theo for how long on the right and he is one of the fastest…
      Alexis on the left and although he isn’t a sprinter, he has a burst of speed which makes his tight movements speedy.

      Alexis has skill and doesn’t have the raw pace of Theo yet he is better than Theo.

      I do feel bad for bashing Theo so much on this article postings, he has scored and he has had better stats than Perez who gets so much love from the fans… But the fact is, neither of them are good enough for AFC if we want to regain the prestige we had when David Dein was leading us.

      1. Please justify your comment re Perez. He was benched by Wenger and given limited opportunities.

  10. What do you guys think of Malcolm? Watched two of his cracking goals for Bordeaux on goal.com and he looks quite decent. Not sure he’d be given such space in EPL though.

    1. He looks a talent, he has been watched by some big clubs for a while and I am surprised we are looking serious in getting him, he looks like the type that we would be hearing Wenger say we nearly signed him…

      Sven (new scout dude) wanted him for BvB and now he is at AFC… Rumors are he is the one who got the greek CB signing done and if he is pushing for Malcom…

      Another thing which got my attention is Raul Sanllehi and how he has his south american connections, we have all read about how he was the one who got Neymar for Barca and this may just be me being hopeful but if he has been asked to help get Malcom by his pal Gazidis then… Fingers crossed.

      I’m paying attention to this rumor.

  11. I doubt Alexis is staying. Wengers comments on transfers have generally lost all credibility over the years. But in fairness; I guess it is also a bit of a poker game, where you sometimes have to bluff in order to get the best deals etc.
    Anyway, Sanchez wanted to leave to City last summer, City were ready to pay and I guess this is very much the situation again. So lets see.

  12. £12m for Cocquelin represents good value for a very average player.The emergence of the very promising Maitland Miles has no doubt influenced Wenger as he could develop into a fine midfielder

  13. Why don’t we invest in a new goal keeper Chec is getting old cant save penalties,Ospina is a reasonable backup but we really need a world class keeper, a world class midfielder and centre-back and a world class winger or two. and i almost forgot to add a world class manager.

    1. I believe we are better off spending available funds on a new defender! Saying this as I know Arsenal won’t get wild spending the money?

      Actually I believe Ospina is very good and even Martinez/Macey have looked good and with enough talent to give them both a chance.

      But what is this with penalties and Cech? He doesn’t even get close to saving them?

  14. Sad to see Le Coq go, but Wenger’s hate for DM’s surfaces again…

    We’re going to end up with all the useless salads staying and all those who have quality or fight gone leaving for green pastures.

    Sanchez – World Class Ability, Great Work Ethic, X-Factor and End Product – Off to a Rival Club…

    Ozil – World Class Ability, X-Factor and End Product – Off to a Rival Club…

    Coquelin – Great Work Ethic, Defensive Minded, Passionate and Not Afraid to put the Boot In and Fight.

    Meanwhile, Walcott, Ramsey, Bellerin, Iwobi will stay and be overpaid flannels for the next 10 years of Mid-Table obscurity…..

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