Arsene Wenger has praised the performances of Francis Coquelin since his return from loan at Charlton, and says the Frenchman is a key player in his side.
However, he did hint that he would remain in his plans in the event of a summer purchase in the same area.
The Gunners have been linked with a host of midfield names including Southampton’s Morgan Schneiderlin, Lyon’s Maxime Gonalons and Geoffrey Kondogbia of Monaco, but the Arsenal manager was keen to play up the quality of Coquelin’s performances in the second half of the season.
Suggesting that people now decide on the quality of a player through his price-tag rather than his performance, Wenger said, “The world has changed. The appreciation today of the quality of a player is just down to the money you spend.
“If we had bought Coquelin at Christmas for £40m, everyone would say, ‘What a signing.’ I am sorry he didn’t cost any money. He is still a good player.”
When asked if his summer plans, believed to be based around a holding midfielder and a goalkeeper had been altered by the way the team has performed in the last few months, he continued, “It hasn’t changed a lot.
“What is for sure is Coquelin has shown he has the capacity to play for us and play a big part in the success of the team.
“I think nobody would dispute that his performances have been convincing and that he is ready for a fight – even if somebody comes in.
“Even if somebody else comes in, he will stay here. I extended his contract. That means I believe in him.”
Perhaps the key for Wenger is that Coquelin’s style has become so important to the team that there’s nobody else in the current squad who can do that job, thus the requirement for competition/back-up becomes ever more important.
I guess we’ll find out when the transfer window opens.
The Coq has been great. Will be lots of competition for whoever comes in. Nice to see that Wenger is thinking of transfers now. Despite denying it yesterday.
Pretty sure he said a few weeks ago that his summer plans had be altered a lot by the performances of certain players too. Despite denying it here.
Just goes to show that what he says to the media can be taken with a pinch of salt especially regarding transfers.
Well considering this is Wengers last year on his contract, I would not be surprised if he goes all out in the transfer market buying Cavani, Schneiderlin, and Cech.
Two years left.
Competition and cover is always good… Injuries have derailed our previous title challenges. Sometimes I fear that the Gunners are one limp Coq away from firing blanks…
Would welcome a holding mid that’s a bit more offensive.
I like my holding midfielders to de defensive and protect the back four, thus allowing our many attacking players the freedom of knowing he’s back there. We have too many offensive players and this is why Coquelin has been such a revelation.
Coqs cover was signed in January imo; Bielik…
Given the level of the rest of the squad I’m guessing he’s got a couple years of development ahead of him first. Reading the game is a key part of that job, and that takes a little more experience.
Hard to know what role Arteta will play next season.
Backup mostly. Like the role Flamini played towards the 2nd half of the season or Rosicky
Indeed. It would be odd to have another captain sat on the bench every game.
With Mertesacker now in his 30s too (31 in September) should we be looking at someone else for permanent captain?
To be honest though, I wouldn’t know who to pick!
Koscielny?
Up le Coq!
Coq for Captain!
Captain Coq!
We definitely need a back-up to Le Coq as if he were to get a suspension or booking we would not really have a good replacement, flamini is leaving, arteta does not have the same qualities, bielik is still too young. IMO Javi Martinez would be the dream signing as he can play CDM very well and also CB as he has done often for bayern. Javi has also played as a fellaini type destroyer/second striker which would be an interesting option for us against some teams. there is also the obvious target Morgan Schneiderlin from the Saints. Carvalho was… Read more »
Couldn’t agree more, like to give him a google search once every few weeks to check he hasn’t come out saying he wants to leave. Alas the only concrete quote about his future came from Pep, which was something along the lines of “as long as I’m here Javi stays.” He’d be just as big a signing as Ozil or Sanchez for me. Carvalho I put in the same basket as Kondogbia- decent player but not the level of signing the last two years have produed. Think Kondogbia’s performance against us this year has skewed the impression on him; as… Read more »
I think it will be a striker, defensive mid and goalkeeper that Wenger will look to recruit, but what does this mean for arteta? Well he offers something different that would be required against the likes of manure – check the Tim stilman column of this week – so think he will be staying put. Hope rosicky stays too!!!
I think Arteta might stay but I fear that Rosicky will leave. He really hasn’t gotten a look in recently and didn’t play at all for the first half of the season. I think he will want to play games. Will be sad if he does but you couldn’t blame him. Quality guy!
I will be happy for Rosicky if he leaves for a club where he gets decent game time. He deserves a better treatment.
Why does everyone keep banging on about us being in the market for a goalkeeper? Wenger has repeatedly said he categorically is not. When asked about Cech he totally ruled it out and talks about the world class goalkeepers he has at the club. And yet you open the papers and it’s still goalkeeper rumours. People get frustrated that Wenger plays his cards close to his chest but when he gives the press information they just ignore it and carry on printing the same stories over and over. It absolutely baffles me.
Maybe because coming out and saying he wants to buy a goalkeeper in the summer will have a negative effect on the three goalkeepers currently on the books???
What good can come from saying that?
Suggesting there may be changes is a tactic Wenger has often used to motivate squad members so that’s nonsense. And besides, he’s hardly going to sell off Szcz after nurturing him since a boy off the back of one silly incident. And he’s not selling Ospina after one successful season. So we won’t buy a goalkeeper. End of. Now let’s stop wasting time talking about it.
Yes sir…sorry sir…won’t happen again sir…
Absolutely. If he admits to thinking one of them is rubbish he’s not going to be able to shift them if he wants to is he?
I don’t think any of them is rubbish, just for the record, though Cech would be an improvement albeit for the short to medium term only.
I was secretly hoping the headline would be, Wenger praises his coq.
Off topic, it’s astounding that DeMaria and Man U get away so lightly with the press and mug pundits. He cost over £60 million. Look at the treatment Ozil had. It’s a culture that’s been created and most of em can’t see the wood for the trees. Cunts is the dictionary definition
The same way they rubbish any player wanting to leave Liverpool, though the pundits talk about taking Arsenal players to Liverpool.
Liverpool have gone from a big club to the same level as the Tots!
That’s very harsh on Liverpool.
by pure coincidence if you take the number of years since Spuds last won the league (54) and add to it the number of years since the Scousers last won it (25) you get 79, or to put it another way,
RIX… OUT WIDE… AND HERE’S BRADY TO SUNDERLAAAAAAAAAANNNNDDDDD
if that’s not an omen of cup joy then frankly I don’t know what is
Also 2015 – 79 = 1936
or, to put it another way, another year that saw Arsenal win the Cup
*hurries off to Messrs William & Hill*
How about how lightly they got off for the Falcao deal too? The overall cost of signing him for one year is pretty much the same as we’d have paid for Welbeck (transfer fee and wages) over 5 years. We get an English player (at a premium) with years to improve and they’ve lashed out £40m for a season of nothing.
It’s not 40m by the way. If he is getting a reported figure of 300k per week plus signing up fee of £6m, it will be add up to just less than £18m for 9 months.
That’s £4.5m per goal.
If Sanchez cost us that amount per goal, we’d have had to spend £99m on him this season.
The kerfuffle over defenders at the start of the season cost us the ability to challenge for the title. We have to have like for like replacements in every position if we are to compete for the title. Reflecting, you have to give a Chambers credit for plugging holes at right back and centre back at that period, but do we really want the same thing happening at defensive midfield?
I’d rather play Ramsey as a DM all season than Monreal at CB ever again though, even without a signing we’re better off than last season.
I think that given everyone and his uncle says Arteta is not a true DM that the role for him is simple – play him beside a DM where his efficient passing will keep the game ticking over. I think the boss sees something in Arteta more than just what he offers on the pitch and unlike in previous times where we were ‘re not
He’s a calming influence, great passer and decent tackler, but most importantly he’s the club captain and the players respect him. He’ll stay and sit on the bench mainly.
Le Coq has been great but the fact is we’re still miles away from winning the league & being competitive in Europe.
Need at least 2 or 3 world class players and 1 or 2 squad players in.
You have to invest. City, Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool & Spurs will all look to improve for next year.
We can’t finish 10 points behind the champions be out of Europe early again and just expect natural progression of this squad to be enough.
21 thumbs down that message got. Seems like people are happy with the squad as it is. Maybe they think Sanogo will be like Diego Costa next season.
Maybe Man City or other clubs fans are saying they need to recruit players like Wilshere Sanchez, Ozil or a defender like Koscielny. Are we sure Kondogbia will be better than Chamberlain (if played in centre midfield) ? This also applies to other supposed big names people want Wenger to buy.
kondogbia is a better holding midfielder than oxlade chamberlain. maybe you were referring to chambers? anyways, we should probably improve our squad this summer, not sure why everyone gets all worked up when someone suggests that the team could improve. as per the norm, I think only a few will come/go. interesting point made on le grove this morning – no one was complaining that coq didn’t costs big money, we were complaining that it took so long to identify the fact that we needed a true DM, and that it took so long to realize coq could do the… Read more »
“You have to invest. City, Utd, Chelsea, Liverpool and Spurs…”
How’d spending £100+m work for Liverpool and Spurs, then? Calibre of the player and intelligence of the manager dictates success, not the price of whoever’s brought in. Would you rather have Gabriel or Mangala/ Lovren? I agree it’ll take some work to get us up to Chelsea’s standard but it’s not something to address by throwing money at it.
City will likely finish above us even after being poor this season. They will be right up there next year.
Regardless of other teams we need to invest to actually challenge in the league & Europe. We’ve not had a proper challenge, as in being in it with 2/3 games to go in years.
@mike….man cited have been pretty good. No worse than us. But they’re losing Toure this summer and probe jovetic and dzeko. And there CM of Fernando and fernandinho is shite. Other than Joe Hart, Silva and Aguero. I wouldn’t have any of them. They got plenty of work to so this summer, mainly bringing in mediocre English players. Not worried by them for next year. Will be us Chelsea and utd
Also I just read some quotes from Inter Milan president, mentioning Toure and the like….then goes on to say he’s going to try and bring back Thiago Motta . Who’s available for free…FREE!!! This player(along with Verrati) owned Chelsea in the CL and I was very impressed with him. I think if you want quality cover/competition, without stifling Coq’s progress. Go for this man.
2 or 3 players seems about right, the squad is in a good place though and if only 1 or 2 come in then I’m happy to see what Gnabry/Ox and possibly Sanogo can do next season (although, good chance he might end out on loan again), I reckon we’ll be looking for that ‘top, top quality’ though, still a few areas to shore up.
There’s an incredible lack of ambition amongst most of the fans here. How people can’t recognize that we have a lot of players just below the required standard i find incredible. We need up grades in several positions to be serious challengers, we need a new keeper, defensive midfielder, right winger and striker. What we have is good for rotation and back up but as you say if you’re 10 points behind the winners, that can’t be bridged by the players we already have.
I think he won’t sign Morgan Schneiderlin as a cover/ competition for Le Coq. In my view he is more likely to go for a holding midfielder ( tenacious) yet better in an attacking sense and my sense is he will bid aggressively for Gundogan. In matches like the ones against Sawansea we need someone who is different and useful with the ball. Le Coq is very one dimensional “currently” in that sense. In other areas I guess it will be a goalkeeper ( if cech or loris are available), winger cum potential striker and a young left back (Gaya… Read more »
His name is Wilshere
You’ve also got Ramsey and, when fit, Oxlade-Chamberlain. All 3 of those players have the attributes you seem to want and guess what, we don’t need to bid aggressively for any of them. DM for competition, GK if a great one becomes available, and maybe a Striker but that isn’t necessity.
With Gundogan coming back from injury and Shcneiderlin being Prem Tested, I can’t see us preferring Gundogan.
Spot on stringer bell and Arsene. To that list add Falcao and Rvp. Tired of hearing ‘arsenal need Matic type Dm’ from lazy pundits.
We did, and then we got one. Yay.
Coq is as good as any other player in his position in Europe at the minute
There’re not a lot of manager like Arsene Wenger, who never stop believing in his player. Football world need someone like him & the fact that he already hinted us he will spend in the summer is good, thats what the fans want. A good squad depth, bringing top class player to help the club to win the title. I hope wenger is slowly listening to the fans & people around him that we need a few world class player if we want to be one of the strongest club.
“…he is ready for a fight even if somebody comes in…”
After the clear denials about other areas of the pitch, it’s clear now that Wenger is looking at a central midfielder of some kind, defensive or other.
It does sound like that. But his comment about how his transfer plans had been changed by certain players performing above expectations sounded exactly the opposite, because that has to mean Coquelin (there’s Bellerin as well, but his emergence probably just influences the plan for Jenkinson). And I can’t imagine he was originally planning to go find two holding midfielders.
I think those were the comments where he admitted after that it was all a bit of bluster to simply fill the time given to answer some generic transfer question. Then again, it might well be that he was actually being honest the first time, and lying the second.
Either way, you can never really trust a word he says about transfers.
I wouldn’t say it’s clear but people need to stop taking as gospel everything he says to the media. Each press conference is just a game of cat and mouse. Judge him on what he does this summer, not what he says now.
Kranevitter?
Glad to see someone else on here indulges the great time-parasite: Football Manager
Media the greatest weapon in the world, even people who don’t watch arsenal/football matches feel wenger is parsimonious and arsenal lose most of their matches..smh…i honestly feel there have been a campaign against arsenal over the years 😀 BTW to be frank my ideal/dream cdm/cm to be bought is javi martinez, personally i feel matic is a martinez wannabe, he is the best defensive midfielder in the world IMO, who can play multiple positions, i wouldn’t say it’s completely impossible to get him, he has been injured, yes!, but guardiola doesn’t really like playing him in the midfield where he… Read more »
Trouble is, as Ramsey showed, one stellar half season, is not easy to follow. We should buy top quality in the DM position to strengthen the squad and let the players battle it out. If anything Coq has shown how a combative DM is beneficial to the way we play, after years of neglecting the position.
why do i have the feeling wenger will get cech this summer, but that might be at the expense of szczesny, i’ll prefer us to loan him rather than sell..i really feel he’s a better shot stopper than ospina ospina is a safety first keeper which i really like, szczesny is trying to be neuer too early, neuer became the neuer we all respect when he was 27 i think.. ospina height is really a worry for me, he doesn’t have the frame also..he has good a leap though and an above average shot stopper my issue with szczesny has… Read more »
Whenever someone say one of our players should go on loan I think ‘Do they know Wenger?’. It will never happen. I’d be interested to see if Jenks has a place back in the squad but with two RB’s already there it’s possible he will be sold (though I’d love him to stay at West Ham – on loan or we have buy back option). But Chesney is not a youth player. he won’t be loaned. I think Chesney has more potential than Ospina but Ospina is more reliable. Tough situation. I actually think we buy no goalie. If we… Read more »
Sorry to bust all your bubble. But it is not a coincidence that Ramsey and Coquelin are not paired in the middle.
Unless we can do an amazing repair job on Arteta, Wenger is likely out in the market shopping for his replacement. I think we suffered badly this year without our cap.
So it had nothing to do with the form we were in? Why would you change a winning formation and team selection?
I’m hoping we can get a player called Condom or Sheath to cover Coq. Would offer good protection.
“Perhaps the key for Wenger is that Coquelin’s style has become so important to the team that there’s nobody else in the current squad who can do that job, thus the requirement for competition/back-up becomes ever more important.”
Exactly.
Everybody and his mother can tell you that we must have strength and back-up in that position. Just like everybody knows that we won’t win the league until we find a world-class striker.
Sanchez is World Class imo (whatever that means), I think we are looking for a goalscorer this Summer (especially if Theo is off) so that might fit your bill but we already have some real talent up front.
In terms of proper CFs, there’s half a dozen definitely better than what we have but only 1 or 2 of those are available, so it’s likely to be more of a punt than a ‘wow we’re absoultely gonna win the league’ kinda signing.