Arsenal have withdrawn a potential ‘sweetener’ in their hunt for Lorient centre back Laurent Koscielny. Arsène Wenger was willing to allow Francis Coquelin the option to join the Ligue One outfit on loan for the season, if chairman Loic Fery accepted their €8 million bid for Koscielny.
However, Fery has rejected the €8 million offer, and Arsenal have stopped talks over 18-year-old Coquelin’s potential loan move. The two deals were not connected, but the loan was seen as a ‘good will gesture’ between the two clubs. Now, Ivan Gazidis has upped the offer, to a straight cash €10 million bid in the last hour.
Full back Armand Traoré has also been linked as part of any deal for 24-year-old Koscielny, but no players will be included in any future offers.
Looks like Wenger really wants this guy.
thanks for the info mate
i think they will accept str8 cash offer
Not convinced.
24-years-old and no international appearances, never played in the Champions League.
A typical Wenger signing. What do you know? If you watch Ligue 1, you will know his is pure quality. Do not talk out of ignorance. Do not be like the proverbial empty vessel.
Remember Vermaelen.
Arsenal have now made 3 bids for this player now, I hope they accpet our bd this time. The player it is rumoured has his heart set on joining us.
jeff, I guess you werent too impressed with vermealen either mate?
If there is any substance to the story (which is not definite) and we are prepared to pay that amount of cash for him, then I would suggest he is a very decent signing, just like TV and Sagna.
yea but no one knew vermalen either so if he is gonna spend 10 million he will be good
yeh not convinced. I want 20M star cb signings! only that is good enough. 10M? what good will that to? I mean you can buy anyone and his grandma for 10M righ jeff? Also hes abit like Chahill is he not? yong no inernatonal apearantes and no chamions league. i mean that sucks right? OR like Hangeland. Ok he is a norway international but at what level to they play? No big tournaments and no cl.. they all suck! right Jeff?
You’re thinking what I’m thinking. The guy’s so good and was not even in the french WC provisional squad? Just wondering!
And those who are mentioning Vermaelen should please note that he was Ajax captain when we bought him. Shortly afterwards he became the Belgian captain.
Where is this information coming from?
Part of it is from me, part of it is from French Radio Station RMC.
Thanks for the first team update JS. Hope we get this CB as we definately need one if we are going to challenge. I know this isnt a first team blog, but any news on a new GK?
I still Think we will get BORUC in the END. He looks more like a player wenger will go for
Boruc wants to leave Celtic, only has a year left on his contract and Arsenal and Sevilla are interested in his Services
my gut feel is that shwarzer is gonna be a gunner next year. wenger will then try and progress both mannone and schnezny(something like that) for first team football in 2 maybe three years. both those GK’s will be class in a few years.
Good work J,
really loves the amount of news being published here!!!
any news about cole transfer, bcz i guess u must be knowing a lot about this.
Thanks for this exclusive.
As with many of your exclusives, other websites will soon steal your material and not give you any credit.
PS: I am a big fan, please keep up the good work.
This actually the only arsenal site I trust when it comes to any transfers. I only wish you did more like this on the senior transfers!!!
sounds quite a lot to me for an unproven talent. What is that? £10m? same as vermaelen?
I’d rather we went Gary Cahill who knows the league and can fit in with the homegrown rule, instead of another frenchman. How many do we need? Get some english talent ffs!
Have you actually seen Cahill? or this Kocielny? Ive seen cahill and he has never really impressed me at all and Bolton want like £15 million for him, compared to £8m for the other dude.
We’ve been linked with hangeland before as well, but he isnt English so i really wouldnt want to upset you by discussing other nasty foreigners
Though we already do have enough home grown talents to comply with the rule change. Home grown refers to the amount of years the player had played in England before the age of 21, which we have plenty of. It does NOT depend on their nationality.
@GunnerSince!WasAGlintInTheMilkman’sEye
I dont agree about Cahill I think he’s an awesome defender who will surely be the CB for England when Rio and Terry call it quits
BUt we can get Koscielny for 10 million euros and Cahill cost something close to 20 million euros
Same age for both players, same height and maybe the same skills I agree with Wengers choice for going with Koscielny
Andrew
I gotta say then, if Cahil was any good, then we should be going for him instead. he doesnt need any time to adjust to the league and of course is so very English which will allow him to get away with murder by the refs, like Terry and Rio get away with!
but Cahill like all good English player is over priced and will cost us double to what Koscielny will cost us
I think Bartley if he continues to progress will be our English CB in a couple of years
english players are overpriced and overrated. i know you dont want to here that, as i dont like admiting that but you know its true.
bent for 20mill anyone? do i need to mention more?
Best Arsenal site on the net, including arsenal.com
Good work Jay
Good to see Wenger staying buying Vermaelan type players hopefully he will buy extra this summer. Lorient should accept this offer especially since he doesnt have 1 cap for either France or Poland.
Guys watch Koscielny goal he scores in the last minute. What a bullet header. Great pass to the attacker followed his run and scored a quality header
There is something about this guy. Plus he can play full back as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWWCaslTvx4
Watch his horrible mistake, 0:30 on that Youtube clip. Shambolic defending, really.
So the Koscileny scored, great for him. Seems like we forgot a few things… We sign a striker who score very few goals in Chamakh, and we sign Centre backs only if they score goals? What is wrong with Arsenal… We don’t need a CB who is a goalscorer, we need a CB who could actually defend! Set pieces, long balls and stuff. This is the f***ing Premiership.
Sign an experienced quality proven CB, boss, preferably British. We don’t need more French wimps.
Quote from the commentary on that video: “some slack defending from Koscielny”…
Thanks for the link, John, but as always a video or two on youtube doesn’t really tell us anything. A centreback scoring a header isn’t exactly surprising, and we don’t get to see much of his defending – only the bits that go wrong. Arsene doesn’t buy a player unless they’ve been watched 10 or 20 times (at least) – if he thinks he’s worth 8 million then he probably is. He doesn’t look the strongest, though – but then again Vermaelen doesn’t LOOK that strong but he’s tough as nails.
Here’s hoping Vermaelen and Koscielny can be the next Vidic and Ferdinand – or even better, Kyle Bartley can be the next Ferdinand in a few years time…
@IsraGimp
French wimps like? Erm, Vieira? Henry? Pires? Sagna? Nasri? Who are these French wimps you refer to? And where are these brilliant English players?
@IsraGooner
it wasnt him who made the mistake but his partner
Cheers J.
im sceptical about this signing. not because of his lack of experience or being unproven. more because he is only 6ft and his physical attributes are not impressive. i think drogba will bully this guy. can someone confirm to me his height? somewhere i read 6″5 and most places say 6″1
What is mthis obsession with defender’s heights and being bullied by Drogba FFS? The fact that plenty of Gooners were cackin themselves when they heard vermealen was ONLY 6ft1″ obviously hasnt registered with some!
he 186 cm which is closer to 6’2 than 6’1 but he has the same great leap so doesnt matter when it comes to height
JS any exclusives on Joe cole? I just cannot believe Arsenal are after him. If we do get him it must mean someone like rosicky, fabregas, arshavin, nasri, eduardo will be going. It doesnt make sense.
Laurent Koscielny is about 6ft 2 just watch him play for lorient hes looks tall.
http://www.rmc.fr/editorial/113394/nouvelle-offre-de-10m-darsenal-pour-koscielny/
this say COquelin will be included in the deal I hope not although a loan in league wont be a bad idea
Nothing on Joe Cole. I only speak about first-team transfers like this if it overlaps into the Reserves and Youth. If you’re looking for speculation about Cole, and that’s all it seems to be, there’s lots of other blogs who are happy to talk about that kind of thing.
Last friday L’equipe said 10M euros had rejected, what’s different between rmc source? coquelin and traore all old stories.
It’s 10 million upfront, not performance loaded like the last one.
So if we get this guy and keep Sol then we might survive in the CB position. Then we buy Schwarzer and (hopefully) Joe Cole and that would probably mark the end of our summer spending (if Cesc stays). A new midfielder would be great and if Cesc leaves then we certainly will buy a replacement.
To leave: Eduardo, Almunia, Senderos, Gallas, Silvestre, Traore
Maybe: Fabiansky, Campbell, Denilson (if we buy another midfielder). I don’t think Rosicky will be leaving, even if Joe Cole comes. Tomas and Cesc are best friends, so getting rid of him would be a good move if you wanted Cesc out of the club. Plus, he can still contribute to our team and his experience is valuable.
oh you are such a buisness talent Stone! you also know all there is about human interactions and about who likes who in the Arsenal squad. And who is shit and will leave and who wont. You sould be manager :P
I think it obvious Gallas, SIlvestre and Sendros will leave but I hope we can keep hold of Sol alhtough there are a awful lot of team interested in him and I guess time will tell if he stays or not
I still think we should have taken Metzelder from madrid when he was available for Free
if he doesnt stay then wenger might bring a player on loan I dont see him buying two players
If we singed Koscielny and signed Sol on for another year then i think we are well set at CB, thats assuming that Djourou and Nordveit manage to step up.
Then a new keeper, which may or may not be Schwarzer, along with Chamakh, that could well be the end of the business, although I would prefer it if we also signed a defensive midfielder too and then we can send Eastmond out on loan to a Premier league side.
Fair enough JS there arent any youth, reserves matches so i thought we could talk about the first team and, world cup etc.
I can’t believe people are comparing Vermaelen with Laurent Koscielny. Vermaelen played for a top dutch team, was their captain & had european experience, he was also an international player.
I haven’t seen this Koscielny play, so whether he has potential or not I wouldn’t have a clue. However, the only clip I’ve seen of him defending was on Gooner Talk when he gave the ball away under no pressure, then when the opposition played the ball over the top he was the wrong side of Chamakh & brought him down for a penalty, which also resulted in him being sent off. He looks like a steak of p*ss with no physical presence at all. If he signs then Wenger obviously see’s something in him, but I’d be surprised if he was a success unless he seriously bulks up.
The comparison with vermealen were the fact that loads of whiny twats were complaining coz theyd never heard of him and that he was too short and had no presence. (Ring any bells?)
I am sure there’s Youtube clips of vidic, maldini, Adams et al fucking up too.
very much agree about ur comparison of vermaelen and koscieiny,
@Geoff
you do know right now the DUtch league is behind the French League
RIGHT ???????
like you say, you don’t have a clue.
If will be another fantastic bargain from Wenger
Guys Wenger knows what hes doin. koscielny will be a good defender. I remember watching Vermaelan for Ajax and lets say he wasnt the greatest defenders plus he was playing with a team that was leaking goals. This guy will be better at Arsenal because we will be dominating games whereas Lorient are normally defending all the time. Trust Arsene he knows what hes doing.
I’m glad Coquelin won’t be going to Lorient permanently. He could become very versatile and valuable because of his versatility. If Wenger signs Koscielny I will be very happy. We need another centre back, and 10 million is not a lot for a centre back whom Wenger has already bid for and rated highly. Al ready having one bid turned down and coming back so quickly with another is proof, in and of itself, that Wenger really likes this player!! Even if he happens not to come to Arsenal, he will probably have a successful career wherever he goes. I hope and think this transfer goes through!!!
Great work J.
We clearly want him and so i hope we get him will trust hes a good defender.
10:04 yeah that’s the thing wenger used to know what he was doing,he doesn’t anymore.vermaelen has has been part of a defence that conceded so many goals,how you can even regard him a success it’s beyond belief,as for this lorient guy he will be a typical wenger defender buy,when it comes to keepers and defenders wenger hasn’t got a scooby.
Vermealen is shit yeah, thats why all his fellow pros put him in the prem team of the year.
But you know better eh?
with the goalkeeper we had in goal
with the injuries we had to our CBs I am happy we didnt conced more goals
and at the begining of the season it was more like we scored 3-6 goals by 75 minutes and then our team dozed of and conceded a goal
but Vermaelen was a bed rock in the heart of defense and for me was the defender of the season in the entire PL
The stats back that up too. The defence was solid enough, the amount of goals conceding per shota ratio was pretty bad, which was down to the keepers.
J how did you find this out ???????
But Great work
I think they will be stupid not to accept a 10 million euro bid and hopefully we will offer more money upfront then we did last time which was probably why our last bid was rejected
BUT STILL GREAT GREAT WORK
look if arsene and ivan want to go for unknown established talent and young unknown talent its fine by me. why should we do a liverpool and sign shit players for stupid money just because they scored a good goal or two in a world cup (ala Diouf and that italian lad whos name slips my mind). the one reason the league slipped away last season was injuries and nothing else.
Our transfer policy is excellent and the correct way of doing things and i hope it continues. one thing which is good about arsene and buying unknowns he scouts them as if its an obsession to make sure the player is the real deal and will improve our team if we need players arsene will sign them providing he can get them for the right price.
nest year we will have 3 established prem defenders : Sol((if he stays if not arsene will buy 2 new defenders), DJourou and Vermaelen and then the new edition whoever it turns out to be plus the youthe coming through aka Nordviet.
because the fans seem to want it? They always moan (alot of them anyway) and want this and that and hate wenger.
He is hardly the best like Wenger promised.
Awwww diddums.
grow up dude
wenger never said he will buy Chilleni because Frankly we cant afford Chillleni or any world class player. If we get one then its not just his huge transfer fees but also his wages which we can afford
This is Wenger being Wenger finding the bargains of the season and making sure Gallas departure doesnt hurt us at all
Arsenal against malaria
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIznLlXTdIw&feature=player_embedded
What was the final score between the 2 teams and what league are malaria in???
J any idea on who will end up getting Assulin and
Laurent Koscielny now looks like a done deal – he can play both RB and LB and also both sides in the CB positions which means he provides us with a lot options
But if we lose Sol and we are almost sure to lose Gallas, Silvestre and Sendros then we surely have to go back in the market for another CB. I still hope we can keep Sol for another year atleast he provides experience to our side which we desperately need
Schwarzer.. Koscielny.. Melo.. Yaya.. Assulin.. J.Cole.. Not to mention the rest, sorry to burst some of your bubbles but we’re not gonna sign everyone we’re linked with its just not realistc so just take each RUMOUR with a pinch of salt. All we gotta hope for is whoever does come in this summer improves us and helps fill up that trophy cabinet at the emirates!!
very true…
but i would like 3 player s at arsenal…we dont have a left winger/midfilder…
we dont have a def mid as back up for song….
we dont have a def to partner vermy…
hence we need…pederson gamst, melo and samba from blackburn
all three players would cost 30m … some thing we can definately afford…
Watch him In action:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3tqvxbnU6c&feature=related
So…The Sun has reported that Joe Cole will be the direct replacement for Cesc…. I’m guessing he’ll have 3 years to train up Wilshere to be the “next Cesc” maybe Rambo too. But it does make you wonder where to 50m will go, doesn’t it? Now, i wouldn’t be completely against it, if Wenger goes out + buys a DM and 2 top class centrebacks. But we all know that’s not going to happen don’t we?
I am still not sure we will get him and Cole injury record speaks for itself
we need some one like sol to partner vermy … we coceeded lesser goals when they two played as cbs… even fabianski managed to keep a clean sheet…. hangerland would be good as we need a def with good physical presence and ariel ability….
also need a def mid as back up (veloso would be good)…we can send denielson on loan
even fabianski managed to keep a clean sheet,lol
I’ll assume you were joking but if you weren’t, sadly, you should know malaria is a disease.
omg guys there are rumours here circulating that arsenal have just pulled the plug on wellington’s deal, details still not too clear.
apparently it was leaked by a “fluminense spokesman”
I am not sure what you’re on about but links will be a good idea
this is the latest of silva
Rio – The delay in payment FGTS Dalton was not an isolated case. Last year, Fluminense had much difficulty to keep up their obligations and almost lost one of its greatest jewels of Xerém. After nine months without receiving the guarantee fund, the Wellington striker Silva came close to leaving the club for free.
The board, however, managed to negotiate with Arsenal, which, in addition to about $ 10 million for the pass couple, deposited an additional $ 450,000 for Fluminense advance all payments of the player until he completes 18 years, when will transfer to the club in the English capital.
“They took this approach for fear of losing in court all the investment they made in the boy,” said Ricardo Tenorio, vice president of football at the time of the Tricolor.
and he was even coming to Arsenal for a month to train with them
i wonder if coquelin wants to go to ligue one on loan in the first place..
the club’s treating him like a puppet.
anyway my guess on the first team transfers are
koscielny – laurent will ask for even more, possibly closer to 12M. in an interview posted on goal.com their president said their club has a healthy finance and does not need to sell, he also mentioned how they want to keep hold of their best players.
schwarzer – may or may not, depending on the price, wenger will want to pay an extremely minimal fee for him, possibly around 1-2M only. but if he comes what will happen is probably he and almunia fighting for no.1 spot.
joe cole – not in a million chance. arsenal meeting his wage demands? especially he was injured recently? but if there’s a .000000000001% this happens, its probably for squad depth only to cover for our left flank.
bear in mind what wenger said about the technical risks involving change of more than 3 players, the cole deal looks dead to me.
my take on the youths knocking on first team’s door, JET lansbury eastmond probably not gonna find much playing opportunities, i reckon in the winter transfer they would go on loan to premier league sides at the clubs fighting relegation. wilshere will fill in for ramsey.
barazite nordveit looks to go on loan again, but to championship sides.
Its Offtopic
Cole – But if wenger cant get Cole for Free then he will take it but at a reasonable wage demand
Laurent – I doubt Wenger will go any higher and he shouldnt Koscielny is a good player but Lorient bought him for 1.5m euros last year and are simply asking too much in Regards to that
Schwarzer – I still doubt it will happen. Schwarzer might want to come to Arsenal but Wenger likes players he can sell in the future and with Schwarzer that wont happen. I still have a feeling that WE will end up buying Arthur Boruc who willl cost less than Sczwarzer
J wasnt Sendros out of contract in the summer???? why are the press printing that we might get Schwarzer in a swap deal with Sendros if he’s already free
J
some newspapers think that this bid might be a player plus cash deal and Coquelin will be going the other way permanently and is it true that WEnger has given then a deadline till Thursday ????? If so good on him, Lorient have really been playing hardball up till now but now they will have to make a decision and live with it.
I still think Coquelin has a future with Arsenal what do wenger think about him ??
Jus read on skysports that Lorient want Francis Cocqeulin on loan with a view to a permanent deal…… I thought Wenger thought of Cocqeulin as a future Arsenal star.. Craig Eastmond has a done a good job when he came into the first team but in my opinion Cocqeulin should be dere instead of eastmond. Wil be very disappointed if we let him go.
if wenger rates him im sure we wun let him go.
at most, we’ll look for other defenders.
Coquelin has now fallen behind in the Pecking order for the DM role.
He has been playing RB for 2nd half of 2009/10 due to the fact the guy has an absolute iron pair of lungs! Seriously the guy can run all day and not break a sweat. I think with some games at a higher level than reserve football at RB will do him well and he will be the successor to Sagna in 2/3 seasons.
I know Eboue can play RB but I feel he will be sold after this season – despite his cult like status. Personally I think Eboue should be kept as he is very versatile and puts in 100% everytime he plays
I still think Eboue has a massive future with Arsenal
koscielny will be back up to Vermaelen. Sol will move on and wait for it Yaya and Chyygrisky will join us as part of fabregas deal, well that is what i believe. Djourou will then be back up for Chygrisky Song back up for Yaya oh and Cole and Assulin will be Cesc’s repalcement. Green will join us with Fabianski going on loan to west ham. A whole lot of signings but similar to a few seasons back when Wenger brought in 6 new recruits.
if that happened our team would be alot worse then last season. I guess we’re lucky that it wont happen.
I think Sagna is a better comparison to make than Vermaelen. Both were around the same age, similarly experienced and signed for the club after a good season in ligue 1. Did anyone remember being unimpressed by Sagna is his first few appearacnes? Arsene Knows…
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I know some people rate djourou but i think hes atrocious hes awful what do people see in him?
I am not going to pretend I know much about this player, nor attempt to comment on his abilities or potential success at Arsenal based upon his height, weight, ability to score headers or international caps! But I appreciate the info fellow bloggers have given on him who have actually spent time watching his games rather than a few internet clips, in my entire ameture career you could make a 30 second clip which would make me look good enough for Arsenal – but the rest of it would make Eboue look like Messi!
Like many have pointed out ‘trust in Wenger’ and his transfers is what we must do. Over the years Wenger has struggled in the GK and defender transfer success in finding bargins…Cygan, Vivas, Senderous, Oleg, Grimandi…..yet he has had great success in bring through attacking full backs such as Cole, Slyvinho, Eboue, Cliche, Traoe, Gibbs….and when he has actually spent some money he has found good defenders in TV and Sagna.
These trends would lead me to believe that if Wenger is going to spend £8-10m on this player it would be a good move. Yes there are young up and coming English and EPL experience defenders around, such as Cahill, Taylor and Shawcross, but then we compete against the likes of Liverpool, United, Chelsea, Tottenham, and City to buy them and pay over the odds – just look what United paid for Smalling back in Jan! I would love us to buy the next Adams, or the next Ferndinand, Terry or Campbell, but it does not work that way. What has happend to Curtis Davis – he was the next big thing yet hasn’t really taken off at Villa. Who says a £20m signing of Cahill wont end up the next Davenport, Duberry, Richards or Woodgate due to injury or just not turing out consitantly or as good as everyone thought?
What about Subotic – has he become too expensive?
Joe Cole – thats funny him being linked with Arsenal – would the fans really feel at ease with him in an Arsenal shirt – would his heart be in it?
GK – The Celtic guy could be a real bargin, always been impressed when seen him feature. Green I think is a bit better than what we have now, but is spending £8m worth it if its only a bit better. And if he starts for England and does well that will rise loads!
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