Former Gunner finally got his revenge on sir Alex

Whenever being asked, players always tend to say that critics don’t bother them and that they don’t read them. Mostly, they are lying, but logically, they don’t want anybody to know that they actually care. So it’s kind of refreshing when now and again a player openly admits something like that, and Francis Coquelin did just that recently. Former Arsenal played revealed he was hurt by comments from non-other than famous sir Alex Ferguson but also was happy to get his small revenge years later. But what happened?

Liverpool's dream which started after a loss from Emery

Coquelin came to Arsenal from a small town Laval and after sending him on a loan at Lorient, the Gunners boss Arsene Wenger recalled him and due to a number of injuries to first-team stars, gave him his Premier League start against Manchester United in 2011. The result: a 8-2 thrashing by the Red Devils, which was so humiliating, that sir Alex Ferguson had to put it in his autobiography and he mentioned the Frenchman as well.

'Anfield is hell, they just want to kill everyone'

„Arsenal played a young boy in midfield: Francis Coquelin. He was completely out of his depth. I had hardly heard of him, and he barely played again" wrote sir Alex in his autobiography. And he couldn’t have been more wrong. The Frenchman registered 160 appearances in the next 10 years with the Gunners before he finally departed for La Liga side Valencia in 2018. He soon signed for Villarreal, and here, after 10 years, he finally got his little ’revenge’.

It’s certainly not nice when one of the best football managers of all time mentions you in his book, and Coquelin had to put up with it for years until last season, Villarreal played their Europa League final against – Manchester. The Frenchman came into the game and was one of the best players, and also was precise during the penalty shootout which Villarreal won and got the trophy. And it was the time for a smile on his face.

„It was a bit of revenge because when I made my Arsenal debut we lost 8-2 at Old Trafford and Sir Alex Ferguson criticized me a bit in his biography, so it was a nice little turnaround to win the Europa League against them. Plus I think he was in the stands as well, so lifting the trophy in front of him was nice. I was looking for him, he must have seen me“ Coquelin told RMC Sport. Now that he got that out of the way, he can focus solely on the big semifinal with Liverpool.

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Semi-finals

Tuesday

Manchester City - Real Madrid x-x (2-1)

/De Bruyne 2, Jesus 11, Foden 53, Bernardo 74 - Benzema 33, Vini Jr. 55/

Wednesday

22:00: (1.30) Liverpool (6.00) Villareal (11.0)