It’s time to move on from Guendouzi… by Rafi
The right attitude seems to go hand in hand with talent and skillset in Mikel Arteta’s plan for this Arsenal team. Matteo Guendouzi has proven time and time again that he cannot carry himself with a sense of professionalism, whether it’s on the field, in his fiery interviews, in the dressing room or even through his social media handles.
Yes, he’s a wonderful footballer. Yes, he is still only 20 years of age. Yes, he has been one of the best players for Marseille this season. But talent, believe it or not, can be replaced. And at this point, I only see him as an asset that we can sell and fund other important signings. I have not been impressed by his childish antics on the field against Brighton, and neither have I been impressed by his reluctance to apologise ever since.
It’s hard to forget his cryptic digs at the manager while replying to Mesut Ozil on twitter. Pal Dardai, Matteo’s manager at Hertha Berlin likened coaching him to dealing with an “adolescent going through puberty”.
He did not even have the courtesy to congratulate his teammates after winning the FA Cup in 2020.
When a player draws criticism for bad behaviour everywhere he goes, it is a red flag too big for us to ignore, irrespective of how promising their future looks. Remember Mario Balotelli? He was once seen by many to have had the potential to be the greatest player of this generation. But his tendency to be immature and unprofessional would repeatedly put him through all sorts of trouble on and off the field. From being a Champions League winner at the age of 20, he ended up playing in the Italian second division at 30, and is currently 31, playing in the Turkish Super Lig.
Mikel Arteta is not as merciless as the media often makes him out to be. Ainsley Maitland-Niles would not have expected to wear the Arsenal shirt ever again after his Instagram story complaining about the minutes he was getting to play. But in a space of 2 months, he has set aside his differences with the manager, has been playing in his favourite position, and is contributing adequately when depth is required in central midfield.
I do not have any problems with Guendouzi returning if he can change his ways. As a matter of fact, I enjoy watching him do well for Marseille because he is such a joy to watch. However, he keeps letting the fans, his teammates, and his coaches down with his recklessness and lack of respect. As I have done countless times in the past, I sincerely hope we get a refined player in Guendouzi as soon as possible.
Otherwise, I’m afraid it would only be sensible to show Guendouzi the door next summer.
COYG!!
Mohamed Rafi
Is there no head doctor to help him. He is such a talented young one. It a sorry admission that he can’t be helped. Not right for us.
He is not coming back. Marseille will use the clause (only about 10 million euros or so). Poor transfer business from Arsenal again…
nice….cause we dont want him around anymore
Didn’t he only cost about half a million?
He’s streets ahead of anyone of our current midfielders. But Mikel is all hung up in his feelings to try and nurture the kid and get the best out of him.
Wish him all the best wherever he lands…
Street ahead of who in our mid feeders? so as to know where to come in ……. I don’t know about many but me, guendo is Bellow average and he cant never b a world class player not only being immature but alot of attribute his game that I don’t fancy
I’ve stayed off the Matteo articles because I just didn’t rate him when he was here and didn’t need to say it daily and it was nothing to do with his attitude ,something I didn’t really care about and not sure why anyone would ,my opinion was based on his footballing skills and I stick by that ,again my opinion and I’ve not changed my mind ,but the constant articles regarding him are completely over the top I say let the lad be the criticism he receives on a daily basis is way over board .
@In-Accurate
Just because you don’t “fancy” him, doesn’t negate his pure talent. Name anyone of our mids who breaks up play and converts defence into attack on the same level as Matteo. Dude has an engine that puts our current mids to shame…
Edmundo Alves de Souza Neto was a talented, highly skilled footballer. There is a reason why he isn’t known by many
So how come we never saw this much publicised Matheo’s flaws and immaturity under Emery?
@Buddy
Exactly…
Dude throttled an opposition player because he didn’t like how he went at one of our players. Arteta didn’t like it and got a hair up his bum for the kid ever since. Then the internet sheeple lined up to blow everything Matteo does out of proportion. Simple as…
A bit more £ than that I think Pat, as usual with Arsenal it was an “undisclosed fee” but rightly or wrongly reported as being around £7M, who knows, if everything we read is true and there is a £10M clause and he’s a problem player it’s neither good or bad business, we’ve saved a couple of years of salary and moved on a disruption, so maybe it’s a break even situation, put it down to experience and move on
Shame because not only do I think he’s a good player but as a player I reckon he would fit into this current squad well
However it’s a team game and one of the things Arteta has done is to unite a group for maximum effort and mutual benefit and if Matteo is as disruptive as he appears to be to me as an outsider then getting him out of the way has been invaluable
If indeed he sledged the Brighton player about how much he was earning he would probably do the same with, say, ESR if he megged him and made him look a mug in training
If Marseille pick him up from us for £10M they could well sell him for a big profit down the line when he grows up
They say class is permanent but lack of class could be temporary for someone as young as he is
If he does grow up and make it big (I don’t see that being with and English Club) I wouldn’t change my mind that Arteta has done the right thing in getting him out of the way for this current young squad’s development
I suppose FF it’s a case of how long you want to wait. Saka and ESR have shown maturity and talent combined. Guendouzi could turn out to be the real deal but if during his time to mature the consistency of behaviour and talent is awry then is it worth it? I’m guessing Arteta thinks not
This article seems on the face of things ro be about Guendouzi.
But I firmly believe that Mohamed, like some other writers, are simply using the already worn out topic of Guendouzi as a distinctly poor “reason” for them to put their name on a JA article.
All Guendouzi article would be writers know that Ad Pat, being constantly desperate for new articles and new writers, will always allow any article to be published (provided it is not filthy, and this one is not).
Being non filthy is about all I can say for it, as I have read it or extremely similar ones, many times previously on JA.
IMO Guemndouzi has been, effectively, a non topic ever since he was correctly banished by MA , never to wear our shirt again, as all realists have known ever since his banishment.
My post has again disappeared!
I wouldn’t want to wait for him to return to Arsenal at all SueP, all I was trying to say was that it probably wasn’t as clear cut as we have been led to believe but on balance it was the right thing for Arteta to do and that at 22 years of age Matteo has time on his time to mature/succeed
exactly
Really!!!!!! What a poor article, they are getting worse and more futile.
He’s not coming back at Arsenal. We wish him well on whichever road is going to take.