Arsenal outcast celebrated after he wins a national team recall

The French Ligue 1 has celebrated Matteo Guendouzi after he earned a call-up to the France national team, two years after his last call-up.

The midfielder was on the books of Arsenal when he was called up in 2019 and the ups-and-downs of his career have denied him another one since then.

Guendouzi is unlikely to kick a ball for Arsenal again under Mikel Arteta, but the midfielder is enjoying a resurgence at his loan club, Olympique Marseille.

His fine start to life with them persuaded Didier Deschamps to call him up to the French camp for the upcoming international games.

The Ligue 1 website celebrated the midfielder for his inclusion and praised him for how he has started life back in France.

The report says it is easy to forget that the former Lorient man is just 22 and his blistering start to life in France simply couldn’t be ignored by their national team manager.

Guendouzi flattered to deceive in a loan spell at Hertha Berlin last season, but in 8 league games this season, he has helped Marseille collect 14 points and he has a goal and an assist.

They also praised the midfielder for protecting Dimitri Payet from Nice’s fans in their abandoned league game earlier in the season.

This praise will hopefully help Arsenal earn good money when they sell him in the summer.

Tags Matteo Guendouzi

19 Comments

  1. Not good enough for Arsenal though. The manager of France and the manager of Marseille (who made him captain last week) haven’t got a clue what they are doing. Arteta knows best.

  2. What a shame. Mavroponos, Guendouzi and Saliba expelled from the Arsenal ‘school’, but are all doing well. We though, are playing some of the worst football (except 45min v Spuds) that I can recall. The Brighton display was as bad as could be imagined. We were very lucky to get a point.

    1. Sean, I’m not sure any of the three you mention would have made any difference to be honest.

      Our defence was strong (although I do believe Salibas will become the next Tony Adams from 2022 onwards) and we still don’t know how Mavs would play in the PL and would you drop White or Gabs for him?

      As for Guendouzi, he is a spoilt young man, who has created problems wherever he has been.
      I believe MA has enough on his plate, without this added problem… plus, once again, who would you drop?
      Partey, Xhaka, AMN and Sam a all bring so much more than Guendouzi’s sideways and backwards play.

      Of course these are just my personal thoughts.

      1. I dont think much would be different if they all played, not because they are easily as good as whats there now but because the lack of cohesion in the way we play.

        1. no doubt Reggie, it’s all about the lack of tactical nous and cojones displayed by our manager…that said, it’s funny that someone could even suggest that Guendo would ever adopt a more sideways/backwards approach to the game than our now-injured 3-wheeled shopping cart of a DM…keeping in mind, that I’m not a huge Guendo fan, but I’m far more concerned about our continual asset mismanagement than the temperamental missteps of our once-envied and still young French midfielder

        2. Reggie, you are not giving credit for our defence.
          Agree with your lack of cohesion for the rest of the play, but credit where it’s due.

      2. @ken
        Guendouzi is not the type of player you described this. He is a fantastic footballer with technicality but slow pace .
        He is a decent footballer than what we have in Xhaka , Sambi and AMN at the moment.
        I believe is quality is beyond arsenal at the moment. He is a spoilt kid but one that needs pampering to get the best out of .
        He’s too good to play under Arteta.

        Arsenal fans will regret the players revolt against Emery and will suffer the consequences for the next 3-5 years of the counting departure.

        1. Well Blaze, that doesn’t seem to be the way his two loan spells are working out and I can’t see a great clamouring of clubs for his services.
          We were told that we would regret selling Iwobi and Willock, but the manager decided what he wanted and we will see how it works out.

          As for UE, it really doesn’t matter what he did before or after The Arsenal…. it was what he did while at our club, so please tell me what there is to regret?

      3. Ken, still waiting for your response to ball tampering on the “Arsenal players withdrawal from internationals” thread.

      4. Ken1945
        I think we forget that we were playing better football, to me, when Guendouzi was playing. A lot of it is scapegoating and dark propaganda and most people are ‘sheep’ and go ‘oh yes’ and agree. Two incidents happened against Brighton. One was Xhaka giving away the thuggish, stupid, anarchic penalty that cost us 4th place under Emery, the other Guendouzi’s strop against Brighton under Arteta. How I wish we would have got rid of Xhaka, the anarchic thug, and kept Guendouzi. Arteta, IMHO, carries grudges with no supporting wisdom. It seems that too many have dust in their eyes. Arsenal have played bad football for 2 years now. There have been so many excuses. They will claim how clever they were loaning Saliba….bunch of liars, who clearly screwed up. The latest is…..”it will take a long time”, even though we have spent £150,000. We a mis-owned, mis-managed club. De Facto. The victim lately at our Arsenal is ‘The Truth’.

        1. Sean, sorry but what football was that you were watching?
          Give me any of the players I have named over Guendouzi…. but it is all just opinions isn’t it?

          1. Ken, im not talking about our defence, im bothered about our general play. Plus for all his so called bad press, bad behaviour, bad attitude, he has a lot of admirers in French football. His present manager made him captain after getting an unfair slating for the incident and he get picked fot the national squad. I appreciate you may not rate him but plenty in high places do, people with more experience than Arteta. Plus my view is, it is alright getting rid of Gouendouzi and all the others but for the decisions to be correct, surely our football has to be better and arguably not worse now that they are gone. If we aren’t performing better, what was/is the point.

  3. He’s definitely got the fire and grit Arsenal have been missing for over a decade…..skill level is debatable. What he needs is a manager to hone his attitude/aggression in the right direction.

  4. Nice positive article about Guendo. A few more and the witch-hunt will change to normal critique.
    About who will he replace, in the current system I believe none. Maybe a 4-3-3 will mean he can play a Xhaka role without the defensive responsibilities, or in other words a pseudo Deep lying playmaker. In a 4 2 3 1 it will be difficult to adjust him maybe but a B2B might be a position? I remember in some games he did show remarkable tenacity and good mid to long ball playing capacity (2-2 draw against Spurs, that assist to Aubameyang). He is skinny a little bit, like Sambi so I believe they both are kinda similar players. So maybe he could have been playing in that position and we wouldnt have bought Sambi? I love Sambi, if he gets more muscle he would be a beast. Just that these could be positions where Matteo can play.

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