European football expert Julien Laurens insists that Arsenal do not wish to part ways with midfielder Matteo Guendouzi this summer, but may have to after recent proceedings.
The 21 year-old has had a big impact in North London since making the switch from Lorient two summers ago, but his attitude is being called into question.
Manager Mikel Arteta has had two run-ins already, with the Frenchman overlooking him for the first-team squad, but the latest incident has left him being forced to train alone.
Guendouzi’s future is very much in the air ahead of the upcoming transfer window, with reports that the club will look to cash-in, but Laurens doesn’t believe that Arsenal want to sell.
“I have to say it’s looking less and less likely,” the French reporter replied ESPN FC when asked if Guendouzi will stay at the club.
“There’s still a big issue between him and Mikel Arteta, that’s why he’s been dropped from the first team squad for the last four games.
“At the moment I can’t see how this one gets resolved. He’s a very stubborn young man, Guendouzi, and so is Arteta, not so young but very much stubborn as well.
“I just don’t know how they sort this one out, make peace. I think it’s an issue.
“I don’t think Arsenal want to sell him but they might have to sell him if they don’t get that issue resolved, if he’s not going to play, he doesn’t want to play or you don’t want to play him.
“Also, if he doesn’t want to stay there, he wants to play somewhere where the manager has faith in him, which is not the case with Arteta right now.
“It’s a very, very interesting case and one I think is a bit of a shame because he has talent to offer if he could be more mature, I think if he kept his head down, kept working hard, listened to what people said around him, which hasn’t really been the case.”
Asked more about what has gone wrong for Guendouzi, Laurens added: “He’s highly confident in his own ability, we’ve all seen that.
“I think the way he succeeded, in a way, in his first season at Arsenal after he arrived from nowhere, nobody in this country had heard of him pretty much, playing in the second division in France with Lorient, and how well he did in that first season, maybe that success arrived very, very quickly and maybe too quickly even.
“I think he’s very passionate, he loves this club, we’ve seen some of the celebrations and the incidents, but sometimes that passion goes over [the top] and he does crazy things like the things we saw against Brighton which he should’ve never done.
“That’s the problem, until he will gain that sort of maturity to realise what he can do and what he can’t do, listening to people around him and doing what people tell him to do…
“He’d be a much better player but that hasn’t really been the case since the restart.”
Does Guendouzi deserve another chance in the first-team? Will the player convince the manager that he can buck up his ideas?
Patrick
