Francis Coquelin’s rise through the Arsenal ranks has been a joy to behold. Before now, his progress was made at a snail’s pace. He’s been at the club since 2008 (7 years!) when he was just 16-years-old (interestingly, The Gunners have just signed a defensive midfielder of a similar age – Krystian Bielik), but before this season, he’s struggled to make the breakthrough.
A loan move to SC Freiburg didn’t really help and it was only when he was recalled from a loan to Charlton Athletic that he begun to catch the eye. He’s proven to be the perfect tonic to Mathieu Flamini, who’s too small and doesn’t win enough in the air. Coquelin, on the other hand, is a good all-rounder. He’ll win the ball back, turn into space, pick out a pass and then get back into position.
But his contract is running out. You can bet your bottom dollar that Arsene Wenger is looking at different options — just in case.
This brings me to The Metro‘s claim that Arsenal are considering making a bid for Newcastle’s tenacious midfielder, Chieck Tiote. The Ivory Coast international is widely-regarded as one of the most combatitive, diligent performers in the Premier League. He’s the kind of player who you don’t want to see on the opposition team-sheet. If he’s playing against you, he’s going to make his presence felt.
Arsenal are often accused of lacking steel in this part of the pitch. Chieck Tiote would help to combat these claims. The 28-year-old is valued at £9m according to the aforementioned source. That makes him considerably cheaper than many of the other defensive midfielders that The Gunners have been linked to (Morgan Schneiderlin and William Carvalho, for instance).
Whether he’s the right man for the job remains to be seen, but it would be a refreshing change of pace for Arsenal were Arsene Wenger to put pen to paper on this deal.
What’s your take? Would you like to see Chieck Tiote in an Arsenal shirt?
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If we sign players like Tiote we will go down and down and down. He has no particular skill-set that other players do not do better. He is a brute in the the wrong sense of the word and has not done wonders for Newcastle. We need players of another level if we are going to become the best, or even compeat with Chelsea and Man City.