Arsene Wenger has resisted all calls to buy a new striker or DM in this transfer window just gone, just as he did in the previous two summers, but one thing that Arsenal fans forget is that IF Wenger had bought a DM last summer then we would not have recalled Francis Coquelin from his loan at Charlton, and we all know how that panned out….
Maybe Wenger is thinking that if we have another injury crisis this year, then he could do the same again. At the moment we have all these players out on loan: Carl Jenkinson – West Ham, Wojciech Szczesny – Roma, Yaya Sanogo – Ajax, Serge Gnabry – West Brom, Chuba Akpom – Hull City, Emiliano Martinez – Wolves, Isaac Hayden – Hull City, Jon-Miquel Toral – Birmingham, Wellington – Bolton, Geidon Zelalem – Rangers, Ainsley Maitland-Niles – Ipswich and Dan Crowley – Barnsley.
Rather than be sitting on the bench or playing with the reserves these players are getting valuable experience and playing time with other clubs, and we are already getting good reports on Gnabry, Toral, Wellington, Zelalem, Maitland-Niles, Hayden and of course Akpom, who has already scored twice for Hull.
Going back to Coquelin, who knows all about the benefits and downfalls of going on loan, having spent one season at Lorient in France and a not-so-successful season at Frieberg in Germany before last seasons trip down the road to Charlton. He is convinced that spending time away from Arsenal is good for you! “If you keep working hard, at some point it will pay off,” he said on Arsenal.com.
“Sometimes it’s mentally hard and you don’t get the chances. You have to stay mentally strong and it’s important to have good people around you.
“You have to make good decisions as well and when you get a chance you need to grab it. The most important thing is not to give up.”
“It’s good experience,” he said. “You get to know what it’s all about in the different leagues. There’s a lot of comfort here. Arsenal is a great club with loads of facilities, but when you go to other clubs you realise that not everywhere is Arsenal.
“You need to prove yourself every week, especially when you go on loan with the Arsenal label. You need to give even more. It’s good experience for them. I’ve been watching the results recently of Hull City, and I’ve seen that Chuba’s scored a few goals and Isaac’s playing as well.
“It’s going to be a good experience and if they can stay injury-free, keep performing, then it will be good for them.”
It was certainly good for Francis in the end at the ripe old age of 23, as he is now an integral part of the Arsenal team, but which of our twelve players currently out on loan do you think is most likely to come back as a first team player?