Francis Coquelin yesterday signed for Valencia for £12m, having spent almost a decade at Arsenal.
His time at the club had plenty of ups and downs, but in recent seasons he’d established himself as a first team player, and made the most of the opportunity given to him when he was recalled from a loan spell at Charlton because of an injury crisis.
However, this season he’s been very much on the fringes, and when the chance to play more regular football presented itself, he wanted to take it.
“I spent some great years at Arsenal,” he said. “They’re the club that launched my career, I’ll never forget that. It’s difficult to leave.
“I was playing games, yes, but not necessarily those that counted. I needed to grow still more.
“I’m in an important period in my career. I wasn’t playing much at Arsenal, and I wanted to see something different, to experience another story.
“I have chosen a club with a great past, a family club. And I immediately felt good here.”
The midfielder looked back on his time with Gunners with pride, saying, “I played a lot of games.
“We won a cup, we finished in the top three several times. I can’t be disappointed with that.”
And he also revealed he spoke to Arsene Wenger about his move and discussions with the boss were respectful.
“We had a very healthy discussion together,” he said. “He’s someone I have a huge amount of respect for.
“I told him what I thought, him too, and he understood. The only thing is that I didn’t want to leave on loan, but really to start a new cycle.
“This is perfect.”
Fine player when used to his potential and a great shame that it wouldn’t last. I don’t know where in Spain Valencia is but it must be better than here this time of year. He deserves it.
All the best!
That’s what we all feel that Wenger didn’t utilize him well whilst we looked shaky in the midfield set up.
I also like how he’s dealt with his exit with class. Frank. Honest. Just like his tackling.
May LA Liga revere our red and white patrol policeman.
Well that makes me sad. Really liked his agressivity, always seemed to play with this heart.
Agressivity…
Now we just need to sell Debuchy, Sánchez, and walcott. Then we need to sign some guys like seri, Malcom, Lemar, Dennis Suarez, or Draxler. Or none whatever works
Out of interest had you ever heard of Malcom until our supposed interest was reported?
Wasn’t Phillip Auclair giving him rave reviews on the Arsecast a few weeks ago? Or am I confusing him with someone else?
Auclair raves a lot about Fekir, can’t remember him talking about Malcom.
LoL. My thoughts too when I read the comment?
Yes! Id rather have Lemar tho if im honest
Devon Malcolm!
Hope this is a Coq down, not a Coq up.
Though also wish him all the best.
Time to change name.
Bon chance Francis!
Huge respect for him and for his decision. He wasn’t born with the biggest talent, but he played his heart out when he stepped on to the pitch. Best of luck, FC!
Good luck Coq
Classy goodbye!
Loved him. Will never forget his insane tackling technique.
Good luck Francis.
So Coq didn’t want to be loaned out and recalled.
I understand him completely. Coq hates short stints.
He made the right decision. Like many players at Arsenal currently, he flatlined and was not progressing. Valencia is a club with strong pedigree, even as it is not as strong now as previously.
they’re sitting above madrid in the table, even though madrid has a game in hand. they don’t look too shabby to me?
All the best Francis! He seems like a top professional. Shame he couldn’t record a goal at Arsenal. Looking forward to seeing him score in his first game at Valencia.
Coquelin’s new club won its most recent league titles in 2001-02 and 2003-04, and these days aspires only to European qualification and the odd cup. Just like his old club. It’s a fine club though, in a wonderful city, and now with an impressive manager. All the best to him.
Our Coq was solid when we needed him most.
Godspeed Coquelin.. I wish you all the best..
Lecoq~! I will always rmb this nickname that was given to him
good luck man. You gave a splendid one year playing with Cazorla. Unfortunately it wasn’t a season..rather a calendar year!
Wishing you all the best at your new club, Le Coq.
Decent squad player gave his heart out there always! Good luck to him!
It’s a great opportunity for him to move to a league where the standard is much higher and all the teams actually try to play football, wish him all the best.
I can never feel aggrieved about a player wishing to leave to play regular football. I liked him and he seemed ideal to be our destroyer but I guess it didn’t pan out, although I can’t think of an alternative tackler in our midfield. Hope he has a lovely career.
Reading a little between the lines, it sounds like that it was Coq who proposed that he move (and Arsene agreed).
As ever, it seems our transfer policy is reactive. We can be brutal and move players who want to stay on, or keep hold of players who want to move but are on long term contracts. But did we really move Coq on, instead of Elneny, because we thought we needed Elneny more? And did we really want to lose an option at DM (since we won’t be replacing him).
Another post I don’t understand. What is our transfer policy “reactive” to? You say we sometimes keep players who want to leave which, I suppose, is reacting to the needs of the club, rather than the player’s preference. Do you object to that? But in this case, it seems pretty clear the opposite is true. Given that he knew he would not start in the Prem, or at least not often, Coquelin wanted to leave, despite his new contract and high wages, and Wenger felt he could not stand in his way. Francis did what he thought best for his… Read more »
A Different George – I think you read my post to mean the opposite of what I meant (my post wasn’t very clear). What I meant was that we should be keeping players if we need them, even if they ask to leave. We shouldn’t simply let which players ask to leave dictate who moves on – we should have more of a strategy/plan than that. And personally, I don’t think that letting our only defensively minded midfielder leave without buying an upgrade (instead of selling Elneny) is a good plan. I suspect the reason we sold Coq instead of… Read more »
I did partly misunderstand. But partly, I disagree, at least as far as Coquelin is concerned. Yes, we had a legal right to refuse to let Coquelin go even though we had no expectation that he would play a significant role–just in case we might need him. But we should not do so. I have no problem with preventing him from going to a rival, like Debuchy to Man United (though we let Oxlade-Chamberlain go to Liverpool). But players like Coquelin, who have done everything asked of them, deserve to be treated with consideration for their own needs. He will… Read more »
Never any drama, never any fuss, always a dedicated hard worker, always a class act.
He has achieved much given that before his Arsenal rennaissance he was canon.fodder at Charlton. Valencia is a great club to go to and with proper coaching he could hold down a position there. Hope he does well, decent player and lots of character.
Once, just once, I wanted to see Le Coq score a goal……
Selling is not a problem, Wenger have not make a move for any players yet and we have already lost one, next will be either Sanchez or Ozil, I wonder if top 4 is still sure.???
I loved it when we played with our coq.
Still feel we shlould have kept him, move back to a back 4. buy another DM n play both of them in the middle of the park behind with jack in a midfield 3. Ram and ozil in AM and laca up top.