by Lee Hurley

This weekend The Times claimed that Francis Coquelin is set for ‘show down’ talks with Arsene Wenger over his future.

Given that he’s not long signed a new contract, you’d have to think that any ‘showdown’ would have taken place then and not just a few months later.

With Arsenal being screamed at by all corners of the football world to buy a defensive midfielder, surely Coquelin would have known at the time he was signing a new deal that a new arrival could be a possibility.

Has it only just dawned on him or are the papers simply trying to fill space given how slow news has been recently? I’ll leave that to you to decide.

Anyway, elsewhere, Arsene Wenger has been speaking about the Frenchman.

I found the quotes on a Turkish site and despite searching for at least a few minutes, I was unable to locate them in English.

What that means is what follows is via Google translate. Dodgy at the best of times, it’s an absolute shambles when it comes to Turkish.

I’ve done my best with it.

“I believe that five years ago, a France u19 team champions, he was a very good midfielder,” Wenger said to somebody.

“He played with Atletico’s star player, Griezmann. Was a great ball winner.

“Later he was a player carrying the ball from box-to-box.

“I felt I had to persuade him. You have to use the hand your dealt to develop as a footballer, where you’re the strongest.

“Coquelin has been at Arsenal seven years. Sometimes as a coach, you need to be very patient to find the training and posisiotns of players.

“Currently 24 years old, he’s at a professional age, learning what to do on the pitch.

“The learning period last 23 years.

“What I want from him is to be facing the ball, a defender and midfielder who knows them [his opponents] well.”