Serge Aurier has been widely tipped to be the man to replace Bacary Sagna at Arsenal this summer, not least because he’s made it quite clear he’d be open to a move to the Emirates.
And the Ivorian full-back has once again expressed warm sentiments about a potential transfer to London, suggesting that it would be impossible to turn down an approach from The Gunners.
Speaking to Eurosport France, he said, “I’ve never prioritised a club in England as even the promoted clubs are respectable. I will privilege the one that will show the most interest in me, that will give me the most game time. After that, you can’t really say no to Arsenal.
“It’s a club with history, with a French manager, who has welcomed many Francophones. Plus, Arsenal are always thereabouts when it comes to trophies and a club that plays in the Champions League.”
Aurier was named in the Ligue 1 team of the season, but is leaving any summer journeys in the hands of his agent.
“If I have an agent, it’s because I need one. He tells me when things are ready. I don’t want to get into any details until everything is sure. Especially just before a World Cup.”
We’ll have to see if he’s talking about Arsenal because he knows of our interest, or if he’s doing it to raise his own profile, but the summer has barely begun yet.
Francophones? Ha…I don’t like this fella..because he’s not Sagna!
He seems like a great player. His offensive work is top notch but apparently needs to work slightly on his defensive work. He’s no Sagna when it comes to defending, but he can work on that. Will definitely be a good replacement for years to come as he is only 21.
In fairness his current role isn’t really to be a right back – who knows if he’d show more discipline if cast into a proper full back role or not. But I think it would surprise everyone if he was as solid as Sagna in his very first season. Regardless of who we sign, that’s going to be an issue, but maybe we can end up with an improvement in time.
Micah Richards!
I would love nothing more than for Jenkinson to make the position his own and wear the #2. However I think he’s a couple years off. Having said that, we’ve seen some dramatic turnarounds in performances from some of our players lately (our other young fullback included). Surprise us Jenko!
give him to bouldy for a preseasons defensive prioritising and he’ll do grand
“He’s no Sagna when it comes to defending”
You know he’s played as one of Toulouse’s centerbacks as well as at wingback, right?
it all sounds great, except — ACN!!!!
Yes I do. Have you ever seen Sagna defend? What I meant was that he focuses more on his offensive play and has to work defensively. All the more reason to sign him if he’s a good fit at CB
ACN….*shudders*
Considering Manchester city are paying an ageing 32 year Right-back with a history of leg breaks 140,000 pounds a week, we should be all over Aurier – looks an excellent prospect.
Just imagine Aurier and Walcott barging down one flank at you, teams will be more like ‘just sit back and try to defend against them’ rather than try to go forward LMAO.
So defensively we’ll not need to worry much because opponents will be more inclined to defending against them. If that makes any sense..
Funny enough, I kind of agree with you on that one. He’s not that good in defense but he is a good wing-back. He is really pacy so we can use him on the counter too and unlike Sagna, he is a threat to the opposition in their final 3rd.
and imagine if theo starts tracking back regularly. could be interesting.
The dude retweets people talking about him and Arsenal, “sign him up Arsene”, etc, etc all the time. I have no doubt that if Arsenal came knocking he’d sign for us above anyone else. He’s a fan. Equally however, I’m also sure that Wenger and Arsenal would not pursue someone just because they like the club already. If the reported interest is genuine, it’s just a happy coincidence. But it’s very possible that the media just like this story because there’s clearly interest on Aurier’s side and he seems to fit the profile of a Wenger signing. That said, when… Read more »
Annoying that. We should have identified replacements long ago and should be signing them now. They should be ready for pre-season.
We will be signing Calum Chambers if Sagna leaves, not this guy.
Interesting that this isn’t a popular statement. Is it because people don’t rate chambers or just that they favour Aurier?
It seems like a marriage made in heaven, which is unusual when it comes to football transfers. He’s an Arsenal fan; Arsenal have just lost their right-back; he’s coming off the back of a brilliant season (named this season’s best right-back both in France, by L’Equipe or somebody, and in Europe, by the BBC); and, to top it all off, he’s both young, and a French-speaker. And, probably, relatively cheap. What’s not to like? I reckon it’d be a huge missed opportunity if he wasn’t at least in our top two.
would be awesome to have two true gooners at rb, not that i know much about this cat.
Wasn’t Chamakh a gooner?
Yeah, I really do think he is a fan. I remember a friend showing me a pic from his twitter page. He’d apparently decided to take some selfies while wearing an Arsenal jersey. I think we might just have found Szczesny a new best friend.
He is a fan. If you follow him enough sometimes he shelves his French tweets away and tweets about Arsenal in english or retweets fans talking about Arsenal and himself i.e. Serge Aurier big Arsenal fan, sign em up etc.
Sounds like a nice lad, especially the part about liking Arsenal. I liked following him just because he’s the only footballer outside of Arsenal I know that loves Arsenal and tweets semi-regularly about that; sadly I don’t understand French though.
Big fan of him. Think I like his chin beard as much as Sagna’s hair…
I like it better than Sagna’s hair.
I love them too.
He’d get along great with Sanogo
Isn’t it sending a negative message to Jenko by buying a young full back, about his age. I assumed we’d get someone in experienced and ease Carl into the role over the next season or two.
Jenko needs to step his game up if he wants a future with us. Probably needs a loan.
Jenkinson probably isn’t good enough, and still wont be in a few years
This is all rather harsh on Jenkinson. I think he’s solid and will only improve. But you can escalate that improvement with competition. RB is a priority purchase, assuming Bac leaves.
Think it has something to do with the ability to play across the back four. Aurier can play RB,CN and LB (I Think I read this somewhere) if need comes. Jenko can’t. I think Jenko will be first choice (Has to be and he will do great) but Aurier has said he wants more game time. Not sure how AW will manage both.
No. Jenkinson or someone like Aurier on the right. Gibbs or Monreal on the left. Let them fight it out for the place.
Let’s have proper options on both sides of defence giving adequate cover for injuries, suspensions, rotations and selection for the ACN. Let’s not any more be one injury away from the likes of Traore, Eboue and Andre Santos.
Aurier looks like another Lauren. Pace, strength, aggression. I like it.
not really. Their age may be the same, but that’s about it. Aurier was in the Ligue 1 team of the season, he’s had a lot of games under his belt in the first team and has scored a few goals so he will obviously be preferred ahead of Jenko. Not taking away anything from Jenkinson of course, he has the potential to improve and fight for his place next season, if this guy comes in.
What did Gibbs think when Monreal came in? I mean Monreal is older so the onus is on him to perform, and if Aurier came about, they’re both around the same age and they’re competing for a place. I don’t think Gibbs would have thought “Never heard of Monreal before” and grew complacent; it’s competition for the left-back position and he stepped up his game ever since. I love Jenko, and I’m sure it will be a positive experience for him. Szcz and Fabianski competing for the GK position was encouraging, so I can’t see the problem with right-backs competing… Read more »
Wasn’t Gibbs injured at the time?
Which I’d guess means he thought that he couldn’t really argue.
“I assumed we’d get someone in experienced and ease Carl into the role over the next season or two.”
If that was the plan we’d keep Sagna.
competition and rotation is good. man shite are going to pay 30m for an 18 year old luke shaw
Has anyone seen FatGoooner?
He seems to be absent this happy days..
Don’t mention his name again… it could be like ‘beetlejuice’!!!!!
I know we’ve all supposedly grown out of the Youtube-scouting phase, but the guy is mint on youtube.
Shit the bed! I was thinking exactly the same thing
Love that OG!!
Mitroglou has some great youtube clips……….
Proof that you can only trust seeing someone ‘in the flesh’.
Didn’t know him at all before this article. He seems to get forward much more than Sagna. And certainly provides more assists too. Has more composure in the final third. Not sure about his defending though.
ACON alert!
yup, that’s always going to be a problem with African players, until they move it to summer.
Or they could change it to every 4 years like the WC/EC, which would help.
But as it’s mainly about raising money for the African national football associations, that seems unlikely.
Seems like a pacy attacking RB. Maybe some work with Steve Bould can help with his defensive ability. The best scenario would have been Sagna staying, and Jenkinson getting a chance to better his game. I don’t know if two young, inexperienced (at least in Europe) RBs is the way to go. But what are the options out there? We ought to look at someone like Juanfran, Alderweireld (sp.), Janmaat, van der Wiel or maybe even Ricardo van Rhijn of Ajax. All these guys have CL or National team experience
I bought him in Football Manager when I took Brighton to the CL final, so I can vouch for how good he is. This basically makes me an expert…
Is it wrong of me to still hoping Sagna would stay? After the FA Cup celebration, hope he & the club realize how much we love him.
But back to Aurier, him & Jenks competing for the 1st place gonna bring the best out of each other, I think. So it’s all good.
My thoughts exactly. Everton’s Sylvain Distin is 36 and his partnership with Jagielka is considered one of the strongest in the Premier League. Although I can’t imagine us matching $hitty’s £150k-a-week to keep a 31yr-old playing in one of the most physically-demanding positions, couldn’t Sagna be tempted by a 5 year extension ($hitty have apparently offered 4 years) at £100k-a-week, predominantly as a centre-back? France’s Lilian Thuram made such a transition to centre-back and he became the most-capped player ever in France. Madrid have three top-quality centre-backs (Ramos, Pepe, Varanne) and they all enjoy plenty of game time. If Mertescielny… Read more »
Perhaps we sign Sagna up as a super sub/cover for CB and RB since he appears quite capable of playing both of those positions. We then sign Aurier to compete with Jenkinson at RB. This solves the issue with depth at CB and then we have 2 young, hungry RBs competing for a spot, knowing we have Sagna who can be deployed out right or in the center if necessary.
Yeah I was hoping Szcz’s serenade would change his mind….
Eboue once got champions league right back of the year.
I would prefer a more experienced and defensive right back, rather than risks other Eboue or santos.
He has displaced the mighty eboue from the cote divore squad so id say he’s very much the bollocks!
All a bit too much of the Adebayors for my liking……
…Why…because he’s African?
Also quick reminder that if we indeed sign him up then we will lose him for good number of weeks due to the AFCON. and to rely on jenkinson then could prove futile.
Bellerin third choice.
who?
you could perhaps, I don’t know, I’m just ejaculating, postulating, suggesting, recommending, maybe, err, use Google?
Maybe, uh, even something like… Youtube?
Problem with any potential RB signing is, he’ll also have to provide cover for CB.
So we need to find someone who is half decent going forward, very good at RB (despite the num of clean sheets in the league this yr, we need to improve our defending) and also decent as CB. Looks like our RB position is going to demand a lot of attention this transfer window – which is not ideal.
He played a few games at centreback for Toulouse this season. In fact he played all over the back line, that’s how Sagna was when he came to us. AW used him predominantly as a RB. its only been the last couple of years he has been a viable CB for us. Aurier could do the same. I don’t necessarily buy into the saying that buying another young RB will stunt Jenko’s development. AW has always been about if someone is good enough they will play, and city have shown everyone that having just as good players on the bench… Read more »
Aurier played RB and CB at his club, the last few seasons. He seems comfortable in the center of the pitch.
I should have been clearer in my comment…I wasn’t specifically talking about Aurier (I didn’t even know the name till about a week ago). I was just saying that in the current squad there are a few problem areas – striker, DM & back-up CB. To this if Sagna leaves (which looks more than likely) then it’s RB as well. With the role that Sagna was playing it’s more than 1 position he was covering. Looking at you comments Aurier might be a good replacement. My only concern is its too many players for our club to handle in 1… Read more »
He’s always a great rb this serge aurier.. In football manager
He needs to work on his defensive abilities. If he sorts it out I can see him becoming better than our current warrior.
Just imagine Aurier and Walcott barging down one flank at you, teams will be more like ‘just sit back and try to defend against them’ rather than try to go forward LMAO.
So defensively we’ll not need to worry much because opponents will be more inclined to defending against them. If that makes any sense..
He’s a good replacement for Sagna. He was voted the best RB in Ligue 1. Isn’t that a good factor for Arsenal to snap him up fast before Mourhino hijack the deal?????
I went on his wiki page. In his photo he has a similar braided hairstyle.
If he’s willing to dye them blonde, he could be a good call.
I’ve seen this guy play about 3 times this year and one thing that jumps at you is his is a natural defender. He’ll be one of the best defenders in Europe in a few years. He is that good. He can easily play across the back 4 and has the passing range to play DM. Having said that, I think Arsene has other plans at that position but it will be a loss if we pass on him
How do you see Bellerin fitting into this picture? Has anyone seen enough of him to know how much of a prospect he is?
Jenkinson has played his best when he has gotten a run of starts and because how much he loves the club I really want to see him get a chance and succeed. That said at the end of the day if Arsene doesn’t think he’s up for it Aurier looks like a player that could be good for us.
Would be lying if I said I knew much about this guy. We have Jenks and the promising Bellerin, but I’d say that, with our style of play that the full backs put in more miles than any other position. So you need competition for places and fresh legs. Jenks is a prospect and no one wants to undermine his progress but he’s not at Sagna’s level. A new signing would not be guaranteed to be as good as Sagna either. So right back is going to be a position that a question mark is going to be against it… Read more »
Expect Arsene to tell us he has never heard of the guy at the next press conference, then 3 days later sign him 🙂 Hopefully the club are still working hard to try and tempt Sagna, as he would be a massive loss, especially to City or United as rumours suggest.
Wenger isn’t going to buy an African player because of the ACN and we don’t do business this publicly. If we were really in for him he’d be a lot quieter about us.
Just to clarify (I’ve clicked through 2 links to get to the original story in French), he is responding to a question/statement that says that Arsenal is interested in him. So of course he would answer that he can’t refuse Arsenal. I hate the silly season. A journalist mentions a team in the question, player doesn’t shout “NO”, journalist makes up transfer stories, other journalist asks questions related to transfer story, and on it goes. Not blaming you Blogs, and I know that Aurier has made his desire known before, but I’m actually glad to have a World Cup to… Read more »
“I will *privilege* the one that will show the most interest in me…”
Is that confidence or arrogance?
Or am I just completely misunderstanding what he’s trying to say?
It just means give preference to, rubbish translation. Like when Arsène was criticized years ago for describing David Moyes as “pretending” that Cesc had sworn at his players in the tunnel (false French friend, he just meant to say “claim”), or when people thought Poldi was being outrageously confident for saying “when we win the FA Cup” (again a wee mistkae – “wenn” = “if” in German).
Could be just a poor translation
I think it’s a bad translation – “privilégier” in French can mean “to favour” or “to give priority to”… i think he means he will favour the one that will show the most interest …
yeah, probably very poor translation
I love Sagna, but he can be improved on from an attacking perspective. Our right wing has been lacking ideas in the game too often since 2009, especially without Walcott, and Sagna has been faulty for putting in too many bad crosses per game.
Defensively it’s more of a worry of course, but good coaching and gametime next to Kos-Mert can help a lot.
This fella would be a great RB to deputize Jenko. Sign him up! Jenks is still IMO the better defender.
I’d rather Have someone who’s not gonna leave for 4 weeks every 4 years to compete in the ACON. If it’s true that Micah Richards is open for a move then why not him. Young English Prem Experienced. That’s a better option in my eyes.
Not a looker this one. BUY HIM. We need to instil fear in the opponents’ hearts.
Anybody else put off by how much he wants Arsenal…Come on man, make us work for it. Give me at least a “Well Arsenal is a top club but there are many top clubs out there. My future will be decided after the WC, I have spoken to Pep, Van gal and I am mulling over the matter.” Bat an eye, ignore us, confuse us. It is a long summer, I want that drawn out chase. Step your game up Aurier
sign dat ting!
I’m happy Sagna is leaving, he’s been OK for arsenal, but he is no Lee Dixon or even Lauren. For people to say he is the best right back in the Premier League shows the Premier League has crap defenders compared with the past. How many times has he been left up field, this season has been a little better, but he was 1 player that played in the away game thrashings we have had this season. He’s been a decent servant, but not great.
wow. Just wow.
This is off topic, but I was watching re-run of the trophy ceremony and something nice I missed in live TV struck me. While every player lifted the trophy by both ears, Koscielny received it with one hand, asked Mertesacker to take the other and together they lifted it overhead!! No wonder they are such success together 🙂
This guy is a very very promising player and could become better than Sagna. He is quicker and offers more in the final third. He is tireless running up and down the flanks and like Sagna, has an excellent leap for a player who is only 5 foot 9. He is only 21 and is better than Sagna was at that stage of his career. it might take him a few months to adapt but I think he will be excellent if Arsenal sign him.
I hope Jenkinson can raise his game and make it at Arsenal. But he is not ready yet. Any suggestion that his confidence might be undermined illustrates the problem we have had at Arsenal for a few years. Sticking with the likes of Almunia and Senderos cost us the league in the past. Having said that I am glad we did not offer Sagna any more money. Yes he was a solid defender but is not worth £140k a week. Unless you have an uncapped transfer fund that sort of money should be saved for game changers. I don’t know… Read more »
I love Jenks and hope he makes the jump but going into the season with Jenks and Bellerin, 2 inexperienced RBs, will be a recipe for disaster. Just like going into this season with 1 experienced striker. We all know how that worked out.
I personally think we should of paid the extra to keep Bac as our defence (ignoring liverpool and chelsea hammering) have looked really a good unit. We all love Jenks he is a gooner but not quite near the level of Bac yet. We should only replace Bac with a very experienced RB. This is going to be a long window…..,,,,zzzzzzzz
the big fear is that we give city the best rb pair in the league
Ive had Aurier in my fifa 14 arsenal team for two season, he always scores too from CB haha 🙂
I seem to remember they when Bacary was injured, jenks kept a pretty good account of himself. Give him some regular game time and I think we’ll be pleasantly surprised. I thought he had great potential especially crossing from the final third. Ok he makes mistakes occasionally but I remember Cashley making them too and he just got better right up until the point we sold him
I personally think this guy would be a gem of a signing.
Read this article yesterday that compares side by side some of the best right backs in the world…..Aurier holds his own remarkably well! I was very, very surprised. All that and he’s really young!
Pace, power, strength, steel, gets forward, chips in some goals, already one of the best backs in France…..would LOVE to see him at the Emirates!
http://www.squawka.com/news/serge-aurier-vs-the-premier-league-and-worlds-best-right-backs/111906
He is no Sagna but i suggest we get Micah Michards along with him
Good prospect but carries risk of acclimatisation IMO particularly as we should hit the ground running from start of season.
Prefer a domestic ready RB like Coleman. However could come down to pricing.
ACN is also an issue. No surprise it has had an impact on African players in recent seasons.
But otherwise a solid looking player.
…and has better hair than Sagna
Let them compete each other,hope one of them might come to be a world class RB!
Err… To the person who doesn’t want him simply because of ACN,FYI… The competition is now played on odd years, just like the Euros… So that’s a No-Brainer… I also find it odd there was no mention of the current club he’s plying his trade for (intentional ommission?).