Ligue 1 outfit FC Lorient are in counter talks with Arsenal over a season-long-loan deal for versatile midfielder Francis Coquelin. The Gunners are currently preparing a second offer for Les Merlus’ centre back Laurent Koscielny, although the two deals are not connected.
Coach Christian Gourcuff has already drawn up a short list of potential recruits for next season, and Coquelin is his prime target. Gourcuff believes both parties would benefit from a year of top flight football before a return to North London to continue his career. When quizzed by respected sports radio station RMC, the player himself confirmed the prospect of a return to his home land;
“It (the talks) have happened, it is true. There have been discussions between the two clubs but for the moment they have not agreed on anything. I will not be against a return in France, but I have to make sure it would be a club where I am certain to get game time”
Francis joined Arsenal from Stade Lavallois two summers ago, and despite a rapid development, the surprise emergence of Craig Eastmond has limited first-team minutes. Arsène Wenger has been attempting to mould the all action youngster into a right back, with a run in the FA Cup team combined with week-in-week-out fixtures for the Reserves. Wenger is yet to be assured that the switch from holding midfield to full back can be a prosperous one, so a loan appears to be a natural solution.
Championship sides Sheffield United and Reading have also held tentative interest in Coquelin.
J any idea if Coquelin will play as a RB or DM if he goes on loan ?
I knew wenger was for going for Laurent I have seen him play and he’s exactly what arsenal need – a fantastic clean but hard tackler, great in the air and perfect positioning but he does need to bulk up for the PL
and what will be our back four for the under 18 next season ????
Andrew,
Kudos for noting this a couple of days ago by the way, few people doubted you, but great work. As for Coquelin, I think its down to the club’s choice where they play him. I don’t think they would accept Wenger telling them how to use a player, whether we own him or not.
Hard to say next year. I’d imagine:
Glasgow – Angha – Hajrovic – Brislen-Hall
Could be more experienced depending on the options. Maybe Elton Montiero would slot in.
this looks like a good back four especially with Harjovic and Angha as CB but isnt Boateng still in contention for the CB spot
He might do, but he doesn’t have much of a future here. There has been some talk he might be looking for a new club already, so we’ll have to wait and see on that one I guess.
Except it is on the .com’s Transfer Linked section. Which 100% means we are not after him.
@ Joe do you really think that the guy who writes those links even knows Wenger
I doubt he has even met Wenger even once let alone know his transfer targets. Every player that is heavily linked with us is in that section.
Dont take much notice of it
Andrew just read the report on imscouting.com lol.
Bordeaux want to buy Lorients DM player Arnold Mvuemb and maybe Coquelin is his answer
J since you know people around Arsenal any idea if we are truly interested in brining Gorcuff to Arsenal if Fab leaves. Its just sad to think of Fab leaving still Gorcuff should be the replacement
So this what our under 18 team might look like next season
—————— McDermott
Glasgow —– Angha — Harjovic —- Hall
——————– Yennaris
———— ozzie ———— Aneke
Ansah ————- Afobe ———– Deacon
I really like the look of angha and hajrovic as a partnership sort of like a ferdinand vidic combo but hajrovic looks very comfortable on the ball unlike vidic! I think we will win our group but really struggle to retain the title with this group as the defence is extremely young and afobe and aneke will more then likely be featuring for the reserves alot next season!
dont we have good strikers coming through
what we are missing are winger true winger I cant think of a single winger in our entire youth team
Deacon will be too old. Well, he could play in league games as one of the 3 over-aged players you’re allowed, but we don’t do that during the season (although Shea played in goal and Emmanuel-Thomas and Bartley were on the bench, all over-aged, for the Academy final last season).
Miquel will still be an Under 18 so will be in the first-choice back line, presumably instead of Glasgow with Angha at right back.
But then him, Ozyakup, Aneke, Yennaris and Afobe will presumably be playing for the reserves at times so the likes of Glasgow, Edge, Webb, Rees and Neita would step in.
And with an Under 18 squad of 26 players Bould will no doubt be changing things around a fair amount to give everyone a game anyway.
am happy that coqueline is going to where he will get constant and regular playing time. am also happy to know that we are about to sign laurent from the club. but, am must delighted that we have good relationship with christian gourcuff because that will give us age over others to sign youan gourcuff in case fab leaves for barca
J
shouldnt wenger sign coquelin to a new contract before he leaves
what if he goes to loan and then decides to stay there and we get the small compensation like we will get with merida
is this lorient player any good???
Better than Gallas except in physicality
he almost the vermaelen type but a bit taller and I for one am delighted we have decided to sign him
ok cheers andrew.
@ Andrew.
is he a better option than someone like Gary Cahill or Steven Taylor?
Steven Taylor yes definitely yes
Cahill might be stronger than him but Koscielny is a lot better technically, he can leap twice as high than cahill and the thing about Koscielny is that he’s a very very clean tackler he knows how to take the ball away without fouling a player whereas Cahill is a typical english defender if I had my choice I would probably go with cahill, him being english and the homegrown rule but Cahill is twice as expensive as Koscielny
so its better to go with Koscielny in my view
these taylor rumours were started a couple of years ago by papers who wanted to prey on the insecurity of newcastle fans…and they persist to today…but as far as i can tell there’s nothing to them.
saying that about the physical aspect,gallas got done by agbonlahor,so if thats the case he best be hitting the gym.
the bit about koscielny has been slipped into the story about coquelin…i’m not sure how much i believe it…
for me selling fabregas for 38 million is a good thing
Barcelona will give us top prospects such as assulin and gerard delfueno (this guy is fantastic)
With the money we can buy steven gerard from liverpool and eden hazard from lille
Problem solved
I think the deal will be around 45-50 million since fabregas still has 4 years on his contract and he still loves wenger and arsenal but it might become 40 million plus players deal
player who knows ????? not gai assulin I hope
maybe a good RB if they have any or a winger like that Gerrad kid
gerrard won’t move to another english club surely…
selling fabregas this year is bad business whatever the price. it will mean the team having to start again from scratch, no matter who comes in. that means delaying trophies for another season or two. delaying success once again, when we need it now.
bring in gorcuff and gorcuff has already played with chamak and with all the french players we have he will have no problem settling in
how about dont sell fabregas, and buy gourcouff. We were shit this season so how is selling our best player and replacing him with someone who is nowhere near as good going to be an improvement. I’d sell arshavin the lazy git who talks shit 24/7.
Fabregas wants to go so what’s the point in keeping a player who doesnt want to be at Arsenal next season
and if you think Gorcuff’s not good then you need to check your glasses mate he is not fab level but he doesnt play for a team on arsenal’s level maybe all he needs to really reach the level of great midfielder is a team like us
Arshavin is a big mouth I just dont understand what his problem is?
the point in keeping fabregas is that he is our best player, so what he wants to leave, we dont have to sell, we have to keep our best players to win trophies!
J
there is news circulating through internet that Ramsey has signed a new improved contract keeping him for the next 5-6 years with us
any truth in that
http://www.arsenal.com/home
Although it is clear that Cesc has told Arsene and others that he would like to join Barca I still would like him to stay. He is a very mature guy and if Arsenal and Barcelona don’t reach an agreement I think he will stay here and give 100% still for the team. Slightly off topic I know.
Back to Coquelin, I think Wenger sees him potentially as a Diarra type player who can easily fill in at DM or RB. This is good news for Francis as it increases his chances of becoming a fixture in the squad.
That’s right mate. I can’t think of a better player than Cesc for Arsenal. Believe me, I wouldn’t take Messi for Cesc..never. But I think that sadly, he’ll leave this summer, and what’s worse is that we won’t get the right price for him, which I think is close to 60 mil pounds.
I agree everything you said Cesc loves Arsenal and Wenger and will surely give 100%
but he shouldnt have said that he would like to join Barca because we lose our negotiating power. If Barca know that Cesc will only join them Arsenal cant run his price up by encouraging other team or a price war
I still think Cesc will be sold wenger never keeps players that dont want to be at arsenal I think we will go through this saga again next year with Arshavin or maybe he will be sold this year
how can you possibly say selling fabregas is a good thing cos we will get 3 youngesters as a part of the deal? that is ridiculous! fabregas is the heart and soul of our club and you’d be happy to get rid so we can get 3 youngsters and some cash? ridiculous!
nobody wants to see fabregas to go but you cant keep a player who doesnt want to stay
and nodoby wants any youngsters as part of the deal and I cant see any good youngsters in their team except maybe Bojan and Assulin who are both too lightweight for PL
if fab leaves then buy gourcuff to replace him and spend the rest on whatever we need strengthen
“The Gunners are currently preparing a second offer for Les Merlus’ centre back Laurent Koscielny”-is it really true? i thought we won’t. Most people think the players linked in Arsenal.com ‘s “transfer linked” means the end of our interest…That means we would go for Diakhate, not Koscielny. We could sign both though if Campbell leaves as well.
J. sanderson, do you know if both Bartley and Nordtveit would be loaned out??? If we are talking to clubs about their loans, could you give us ideas?
Dikhate is completely left footed and Everytime we played Vermaelen on the right he did not look comfortable so I dont think we will go for him
Norvedit has played been loaned to three clubs already so he will either be brought into the first team or sold
Bartley said himself that he thinks it will take him atleast two more years to break into the first team so a loan looks likely
I think Diakhate is immense, and we should definitely go for him. Let’s say Clichy gets injured, do you really want to see Traore on the left back. We need back-up even if we buy Kosczielny, and what’s better than a reliable back-up player at 3 or more positions
I think you missed Gibbs who looks a better LB prospect that both Dikhate and Traore but I guess I am biased as I have seen a lot of Laurent and only a single game of Dikhate
I think Bartley should go to Sheff United for a full season, to get a season and a half’s worth of experience playing week in week out by the age of 20 is good going for a centre half.
if campbell, gallas, sanderos and sylvestre leaves, that makes us really light in terms of numbers, so we might bring in 2 players. so the CB options will be vernaelen, nordtveit, NEW (KOSCIELNY), NEW, BARTLEY. can bartley make it early like Tony adams…i wouldn’t mind and if not keep campbell as 4 CB’s are not enough for us
Djourou as well. I think we definitely want to keep Sol, it just depends on whether he’d rather have have a year as a first team regular with Celtic or as a squad player for us.
I’d have thought we’ll definitely replace Gallas, and Campbell if he leaves.
I think Campbell will stay
Wenger understood how important Campbell was to the team on and off the pitch
If Bartlet doesnt think he’s ready then I doubt Wenger will put him in the first team and you forgot DJOUROU
Jamie someone mentioned Ben Glasgow as big prospect at right-back. His profile doesn’t seem to work. What’s your opinion on him?
there’s also Jordan Wynter who can play there
Hey Andrew,
Do you know anymore information on the “second bid” about Laurent Koscielny.
And also, i notice you say you have seen him play alot of times, could you give us more information on the type of player he is, his top attributes and so on.
Cheers
I downloaded a few games of Lorient that they played against Lyon, Bordeaux, auxere and PSG and except for one game where he was red carded for a foul on chamak (although Chamak dived and you could clearly see that) he did pretty good
He has excellent technique and loves to drive forward with the ball, an impressive leap like Vermaelen, the most awesome thing about him is that he’s a very clean but hard tackler, he also had good positioning. HIs weakness maybe that he lacks physicality in my view other than think of Vermaelen but taller
Also I have no idea if we have made a second bid but I can’t see us buying Cahill (too expensive), Dikhaete (completely left footed) and mertesacker isnt coming
the only really viable player we can go for is Laurent – cheap, up and coming star, right footed, technically very good and CHEAP
that’s why I saw some games of him
about his speed.
so except from glasgow, and ansah who played last year, will the team be just about the same as last year. I was expecting some more of the u16’s this year to get into the u18’s.
Freeman, Deacon, Henderson, Evina and Frimpong will all be over 18 so won’t feature next season.
It’s also a possibility that Miquel, Yennaris, Ozyakup, Aneke or Afobe might be thought of more as reserve team players next season (like Frimpong was this season) and so not feature very regularly for the academy. Although they’d still play in the Youth Cup and the semi and final of the league.
Either way we should definitely be seeing a lot more of Ansah, Angha, Monakana, Bihmoutine, Webb, Rees, Edge and Wynter this season (as well as others from this season’s Under 16s).
Campbell & Gallas are both leaving with the other 2, so we need 2 centre halves. Last season we used Gallas, Vermaelen, Campbell, Silvestre, Senderos, Bartley, Djourou and Song at Centre Half albeit the latter 4 played about 5 games between them at that position. I think 5 centre halves will be enough this year Kosicelny, Diakhate, Djourou, Vermaelen and Nordveit. Song will still be around if need be and Bartley can have a season long loan. This Coquelin move for me will become a permanent one, unfortunately he has not proved himself to be better than Eastmond or Frimpong in the holding role and has hardly set the world alight at RB. With Angha, Edge, Hajrovic and Glasgow all able to play there it is time to set him free, this will happen more and more with the younger players as they approach their 20’s the new rule will mean that there will not be enough room for them all, so only the real top talent will come through.
I still think Sol will stay but he left us once before for pompey he can do it again for Celtic I guess time will tell
we should have gone for Metzelder he was a free agent
I certainly wouldn’t give up on Coquelin yet, I went to the Arsenal v Sunderland u18s cup game last year at stadium of light and he was exceptional. As there was only one stand open I was sat amongst Mackems and the two next to me were impressed with him more than any other player on the pitch (including Eastmond, Bartley, Frimpong, JET, Lansbury and Wilshere). He was frankly a step above the rest of the team (Wilshere was marked VERY tightly by 2 or 3 throughout). He got stuck in, used the ball briliantly, turned away from opponents with ease and looked very composed throughout. He may not risen as quickly this season bu he’s still a kid and I think is a very promising player.
Looks like Fabregas is definately gone nd we r getin Gourcuff at least Gourcuff will be an able replacement plus hes bigger than cesc nd we shud hav an exta 20 mil to spend on other players. I dont think Wenger will sell Coquelin as he is a player Wenger likes, also remember when we signed Song nd Flamini they were very average players at the time but turned out to be top quality so I definately think Coquelin has a future at Arsenal.
i don’t think we are going for gourcuff or koscielny…
we’ve been dealing withgourcuff senior over this coquelin business, and some journo has obviously just used his crap imagination to link us with his son and with one of his best defenders.
wenger probably won’t even sign a new central defender. we’ll go into the season with Djorou and Vermaelen as our only recognised central defenders. maybe a couple kids will get promoted. bartley maybe. nordveit.
J Sanderson apparently Arsenal are keeping a close eye on Lacina Traore who was apparently offered to Napoli by Cluj. Any truth in it or just nonsense .
Hey J I know this is off topic, but I read somewhere that we are after Connor Wickham again?? Is this true?? I don’t really think we need him, but getting him would be cool too hahaha. I hope that we can get Koscielny!! He sounds like a right footed Verminator!! I’ve never actually seen him play though. I also hope we get Johann Gourcuff. Is Koscielny French??
@ Andrew
How do you kno so much about the Lorient player.( Can’t bother to check how his name is spelt) He has a bit of TV5 to him plus who else?
Coquelin can go back to France and get some playing time if he wants. No harm done at all by that.
Couldn’t care less about barca prospects that may never become accustomed to the PL and may very well want to go back to ‘glamarous’ Barca (spit) when they finally come good. Yaya is the only one and he wanst Chelsea.
Fabregas = 60m cash upfront EVERY PENNY. (50m in real terms + an extra 10m for being assholes)
Milo Koscielny has dual citizenship – French and Polish. I only saw him play once this season. He looked descent. To tell you the truth he looked better then Vermaelen in Ajax
Andrew mate i admire you for doing that. Hopefully we can get him it makes sense iT MAKES ARSENAL SENSE.
Veske
Well that means its great news for us then, if he can settle like Vermaelen. But I really want to hear about Koscienly’s quality from someone that has seen him play regularly.
JS
I asked recently about your views on Barazite. He has scored in the last 3 pre-season openers and yet has never made the plane to Austria. Is he in danger of nat making it?
I asked recently your thoughts on Barazite.
J, what do u reckon to alex welch being told to lve, thought he was one of our vest coaches, why do arsenal keep letting our best people go 1st mr o’c now him, seems crazy to me! We taking steps backwards surely?!
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I love this site even more than before now that Virgin have stopped the AGFTV . Is there any other way to see the kids and reserves without buying AFCTV or going to matches?
As fpr Coquelin..he is class and will replace Sagna in 12 months. He and Gibbs are the future. What I would love to see very soon is an influx of UK talent…ie; Wickham, Powell, Jones (Blackburn) Hart, Dorrans .
Lets hope Sczezny is only on loan for another 6 months because he is ready.
Any idea what JET and Lansbury will be doing next season. Both signed long term deals the last season.
After the Fulham game Lansbury has impressed me with his box to box abilities and also eye for good pass.
JET – Don’t have a clue where he would fit in. He’s played all over the park for reserves seems to be moving farther up the pitch? Was CF v Stoke in FA Cup but doesn’t strike me as that type of player. A year ago I had high hopes of him being a CB but the Doncaster role was advanced and he banged in goals. Another loan?
I love Coquelin. Along with Barazite and Miguel, he’s my favourite young player. Can’t think of any player I’d like less than Conor Whickham! I can imagine him being very effective for a midtable team – he’s a kind of muscular efficient version of Crouch – but he’s not the type Wenger would go for, surely?
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