Francis Coquelin has been presented as an FC Lorient player. The French midfielder has penned a season long loan with the Ligue One outfit and spoke to a selection of the media about the switch today.
Coquelin spoke briefly about his reasons for the surprise switch, whilst also confirming his long term intentions is to remain with Arsenal. Lorient return to full pre-season training on Monday, but the youngster has been given extra time off, due to his precipitation in the UEFA Under 19 European Championships next month.
President Loïc Fery confirmed the details revealed on Young Guns at the start of the month, that discussions over the deal had taken place for a while, and an interest was registered long before the Gunners’ pursuit of Laurent Koscielny. Speaking about how the move came about, Francis said:
“When I went to Arsenal, I didn’t plan to go on loan. But as I said, I wasn’t getting much play time at Arsenal so I don’t think it’s a mistake to come here where they play a quality football. I’ll keep improving, and I’m very happy to sign for Lorient.”
Although primarily a holding defensive midfielder, Coquelin completed the season as Arsenal’s rookie right back. Naturally, there’s intrigue into where the prospects future position is, but his new coach Christian Gourcuff was quick to confirm his intentions.
“He’s a central midfielder. At Arsenal he has played as a right back but I don’t think it’s his best position. He’s a center midfielder, but he can play some games right midfielder.”
Fery was also confronted with questions regarding the on going saga involving Koscielny, but he only went as far as saying Arsenal’s approach was “serious” and there is a “serious” offer.
You can follow Coquelin’s progress with France throughout the summer on Young Guns.
well hope he does well
He doesnt look that happy!
good move for him, at least he’ll be playing in his natural position there so he can develop
@ J.
What are FC Lorient’s youngsters like?
If we are going to loan players to each other, what players should we look forward to?
I think we have first dibs on their best youngsters I doubt wenger will take their young players on loan and then send him back to Lorient.
Strange of Gourcuff Snr to suggest Arsenal play him out of postion, surely it must be in the loan terms to play him in certain positions only so that he can develop that role.
To be honest, i do concur with Gourcuff, Eastmond did step up and improve to first team status from full back to defensive midfielder, when we all thought it was a matter of time before Le Coq made him mark as the midfield terrier for the 1st team.
Be good to check his progress for Lorient. I can see him excelling as the DM.
he will be an arsenal great in the future!!!
Is Eastmond that much better? It seemed like Coquelin was all the talk for awhile and then Eastmond appeared.
Exactly mate.
Lorient are well known for playing good football, so this should suite him..however the EPL is much more physical than Ligue 1 so if he does come back he may still have to go out on loan to an english club to get acclimatised to the physical nature of football in the top flight. Good luck to him.
From what I’ve seen the french league is good preparation for the PL. While it is definitely more physical in england, francis will have to deal with that side of things in france. I think this is why so many french players do well in england.
If he has a good season in Lorient which will be hard because they have a lot of good players in the midfield then wenger will definitely consider Coquelin for first team football.
i think eastmond is in front of the cock beacause he is bigger! haha
I agree that RB isn’t his strongest position.. Seeing him a couple of times there he just doesn’t have the pace of a Sagna, Clichy etc.. He’s not slow but he’s less exposed in the middle, especially the way we often leave our full backs exposed.
he looks excited to be there.
I personally would like to see Kyle Bartley, havard Nordvteit go to ligue 1 it will toughen them up. Alot of physical strikers play in France.
British players should go to different countries that would learn alot.
Norvedit has played 2 and half years in different leagues he doesnt need to go out on loan anymore.
Bartley does need the experience and he should go on loan but not to a french club an english club.
Nordveit played in the german first division….
that`s physical
By the way people Koscielny being 186cm isnt short hes nearly as tall as John terry whos 187cm and he isnt a bad centre half.
Terry and gallas worked well for chelsea one being 6ft 2 in terry and one being 6ft in gallas.
I dont see why Koscielny and vermaelen wont work ones nearly 6ft 2 and the other is 6ft.
they forget how good Kos and Vermaelen are good in their leaps. They can easily leap more than a players who’s 6’3 or even 6’4
Exactly.
Cannavaro is under 6ft, and he’s not a bad defender is he?
And would people want to sign Zac Knight just because he’s like 6’6 or something?
I think Canaravo is less than 5’10 but I think he has to be counted as one of the best CB of all time
I think Koscielny and Vermaelen can form a formidable patnership if all goes well
a lot similar to what Rio and Vidic had in 08-08 season and Vermaelen and Koscielny havent even reached their peak yet
Vermaelen is 24 so is koscielny that could be a really good partnership.
The problem i feel is the overall height in the team. We could do with 6 first team players being over 6ft.
I dont think we would have this debate of centre bcks height if our team had alot of 6ft 2,3 players in our team.
But with the additions of chamakh, kosicleny maybe wenger is readdressing the balance.
Every set piece we always look to small against opposition especially when we dont have bendtner or diaby.
Djour is also 6’4, pretty big dont yall think? We arent a “midget team” anymore! hahah
Yeah he looks very excited to be there, look at that big chuckie chesse smile on his face
It seems to me most players that are sent out on loan probably won’t make the cut. But I certainly hope the current crop of players especially JET, Wilshere and Lansbury will go on and become first team players.
1. Wilshere and Szczesny are going to make it there’s no doubt in my mind about these two
2. JET has finally found his position as a striker but I think he will find it pretty hard to break in the first team with players like Bendtner, Chamak and Van Persie in front of him.
3. Lansbury too has so much competition in front of him that it will be almost impossible for him to break through add to that how young everybody is in our midfield I doubt Lansbury will make it. He is directly competing with Ramsey for a posiiton in the team and Ramsey is too good believe anyone can beat him
4. Coquelin and Eastmond are open to guessing any one of them can make it. Eastmond looks like the first choice in a 4-4-3 formation and I think Coquelin will be better than him in a 4-4-2 formation.
5. Bartley and Norvedit are open to discussion since none of us have seen a lot of the two to know who’s can make it and who wont
6. Barazite is a player I love and he looks to good for the reserves so I hope he makes it in the team next season or is loaned to a PL club.
7. Sunu and Watt are good players but I doubt either of them will make it in the PL or even arsenal.
I agree with the posters saying the english players should do similar moves away as it will really help them develop into better players.
Hope to see Lansbury do the same if he cant get into the team.
:)
first of all denielon needs to go on loan….
and that to a newly promoted premier league side or bolton to toughen up….
he needs to improve his work rate…
Personally i am not a big fun of JET bt if there are starlets that i could curse wenger if he let go are 1. Nacer Barazite 2.Jack Wilshere 3. Henri Lansbury. 4.Benik Afobe.But for me out of the four i especially wouldnt let Barazite go coz that boy is gifted and is a readymade replacement for rosicky.When i say ready made replacement i mean the kid plays exactly like the old rosicky and by the way i can bet that he is the best long range shooter we have at arsenal right now i.e both the first team and reserves combined.
Barazite looks too good for reserves doesnt he?
For a DM player, i expected him to play in the Seria A, to develop him physically. Well, let’s wish him the best.
For some reason I don’t understand AW doesn’t rate Coquelin as a defensive midfielder … and instead prefers Eastmond … go figure? So he’s been moved to right back.
I don’t blame Coquelin one bit for going to Lorient. He’ll probably get first team time against the likes of Bordeaux, Lyon, etc … and he’ll be able to improve in his best-suited position – proving AW wrong in the process.
The good thing for us is that he wants to stay at Arsenal long term. And don’t forget he’s only just 19. This may well work out.
Its lack of physciality that coquelin doesnt have, if we were playing with two 2DM then wenger would have prefered Coquelin before Eastmond. Since Coquelin is a lot better technically, and to be fair he’s a better player than Eastmond
But Eastmond has that toughness that Song has and he can impose himself on the midfield like Song can.
Coquelin is like Denilson better player than Song but lacking that physicality to impose himself as a DM player.
denilson is in no way better than song
Denilson is a lot better than Song Technically, he has better vision than Song and his passes are a lot more accurate than Song and he has a mean long range shot
but he lacks the physicality to excel in the DM role and its the same with Coquelin
If we switch back to 4-4-2 then you will again see the best of Denilson. Other than Song I am sure everyone in our team will fit in a 4-4-2 system
The only reason I think Song may not fit in a 4-4-2 system is because I havent see how good his stamina is. I am not sure he can survive 90 mins as a box to box midfielder
I think if ppl want to see how good denilson actually is you have to watch him live. I had my doubts about him but when i saw him at the emirates cup.
His touch, awareness, instant control, shiedling was unbelievable. He was surrounded by 2 or 3 players all the time but its the way he gets the ball instantly than passes in one movement despite being under pressure which impressed me and shocked me. His work rate as well the boy does put a shift in
Cause on tv it looks like hes passing it simple and doing nothing but he does so much more.
I am still not convinced hes a defensive midfielder doesnt have the physical strength at the moment but maybe later on in his career. He could be our felipe melo!
i agree, he is very good at keeping the ball and unlike a few arsenal players, he does not give it away at a wimper
agree’d Denilson did a wonderful job last season and is nt a CDM, he should play on the other side of the midfield. distributing the balls from the back to the front, while still tracking back to help the back 4 defend on those counters we get screwed on. Really a class player who im excited to see next year along ith diaby
I think Lansbury WILL make it.
He maybe competing with Ramsey but there’s nothing to say they both cant play in there.
for me Lansbury and Ramsey are ahead of Denilson and will probably unseat Diaby when he picks up his 2/3 regulation calf injuries in the season.
One other factor is you can write off this coming season for Ramsey. He won’t be back until post christmas and then he will pick up knocks and niggles. This maybe why we see Lansbury in the 1st team squad next year.
Finally, who knows what the Cesc saga will bring, We are resolute in not letting him go, however we know he will go in about 2 yrs and that is being optimistic! Both Lansbury and Ramsey will still only be 21 then.
We need to keep Lansbury for this season. I know people keep saying our midfield is packed but really.
Song – 1st choice DM, Eastmond/Denilson 2nd choices and not ideal
Cesc – 1st Choice AM playmaker. Nasri possibly 2nd but AW keeps saying he is a winger
Diaby – 1st choice auxilary box to box. Back up is??? Denilson? No. Lansbury/Ramsey and with Ramsey out for a while yet this is why Lansbury is needed.
Holohoax Kieran gibbs was terrible at Norwhich look at him now. He looks a class left back for me should be arsenal left back now.
Loan spells are there to build power, physical endurance and playing games 3 games in a week.
Nacer Barazite is a talent he just didnt suit Derbys style of football. Hopefully he has a good pre season and stay injury free.
Afternoon everyone this is my first post on here so be gentle lol also props to the website,easily the best Arsenal site i’ve come across.
I think the loan move will be good for the boy,he’s obviously a talented kid and just needs the playing time in a high pressure situation and what’s more high pressure than week in week out at quite possibly a relegation battling side.
On another note I’m all for Barazite getting a chance,I have been a fan for years,he just seems to have something that alot of the other talented ones at our club don’t have,if he hadn’t got that bad injury 2 years ago at Blackburn then I think we’d have seen more from him in my opinion.
Also think we should stay along the same lines formation wise,only change would be to make it more defensively stable in bigger games with Diabys role sitting alongside Song alot more rather than leaving him exposed so often,thus allowing our full backs to roam forward knowing they have protection.
I think I’m gonna keep rambling a bit more here,I understand that we need a goalkeeper..BAD..but Mark Schwarzer?!? I don’t get it, I really don’t,I’ve seen him make more mistakes than Almunia and he’s older so is likely to just get worse! I agree we probably need a keeper for 2 or 3 years while we wait for the wunderkind Sczesney etc but why settle for this when there are better keepers out there by a mile,plus wouldn’t it be better for sczesney thinking he has to play well to get in the team in the future rather than thinking “you know what,they’re just keeping my gloves warm for a while” …hopefully I’m wrong,I can’t handle anymore of these keepers that can’t use their hands..
we need a keeper and kinda bad…
but for sure i wouldn`t go for schwarzer but he`s cheap… although i think Tzorvas from the Greeks is a lot better and i don`t think he is too expensive
and for a really good Gk the Swiss Benaglio i think he has what it takes to be one of the best keepers in the world
Hopefully a good loan move for Coquelin. I think he will benefit, much like Song when he went to Charlton.
Thanks for this piece J. Love the bit about Coquelin’s “precipitation” in the U-19 championships – I guess you mean “participation”.
Song is just as good as Denilson technically. People look at Song and think he is just a big lumbering oaf like Fabrice Muamba. Well, he isn’t. I was so srprised by the little flicks and tricks he displayed last year. In the games where he felt most comfortable, he really has a buckaneering style of play for a defensive midfielder. Sometimes he had my heart in my mouth with his calmness. And his passing was very accurate as well. No he won’t make those defense splitting passes, but he can more than hold his own to Denilson in the technical department. The same goes for Eastmond compaired to Coquelin. Eastmond is a more physical Denilson. As for Denilson, he will be really good next year if he stays injury free. I have said that all along. He CAN be vital to the club next year, and he shouldn’t be loaned to another club like some maniacs are suggesting. I got on his ass hard last year for not tracking back etc. but once I found out that he was playing with an injury, I admired his committment to the club.