Matteo Guendouzi completed his permanent transfer to Olympique Marseille from Arsenal this summer.
The midfielder had impressed at the French club on loan last season and merited the move.
However, he could have played in Ligue 1 sooner than that had an offer from Arsenal been accepted by Lyon in 2020.
The Gunners proposed a swap deal that would have taken Houssem Aouar to London in exchange for the midfield hot-head.
However, Lyon didn’t like his profile then, and their director at the time, Juninho, has now admitted he underestimated the midfielder.
Speaking to RMC Sport, he was asked about the former Gunners man, and said: “Honestly, Guendouzi is better than I thought, because when I was director of football at OL, I had discussions about him with Edu when he was at Arsenal. I had a few doubts, but today, I would say he’s a midfielder… not complete, because he isn’t always going to score goals, but he does formidable work as a box to box.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Guendouzi was one of the finest young midfielders we had and he was still developing his game before he fell out with Mikel Arteta.
That fall out meant his Arsenal career was over, but we all knew he was a top midfield talent.
He is now showcasing what he can do on the books of OM in the French top flight.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Watch Arteta’s pre-match press conference ahead of Leeds.
Please enjoy, watch and subscribe to JustArsenalVids
This posting is bound to provoke the faithful and maybe a few ranting.
But I said at the time of loaning out the kid that his contract should be renewed,
In doing that we would not only protect his Value but maybe he could even be used in a swap deal for Bellingham.
I said the same thing for Pepe and also a young Greek defender Wenger once said will be a monster one day.
But back to the hot head, the kid is a natural talent and we may have trade him for a better dressing room, hopefully in the future we dosen’t hastily give away our players for nuts.
He is better than Douglas Luiz and sport a higher ceiling, but that’s just my opinion as an armchair manager.
Bellingham, reports suggest that he could go for 150m, it’ll be close to 100 at the least, with every top club looking at him. It’d be amazing if we did pull it off, but highly doubtful
It was the right decision to get rid of Guendozi. Respect comes first for me. He was a jokester personality that we were trying to get away from..
Glad Arteta got rid.. The club is in harmony today after the biggest primadonnas were gotten rid of.
Thank feck..
Guendouzi Is a top talent and no doubt will end up at a top European club like Bayern or PSG. He would be an ideal player for us right now but it wasn’t meant to be.
No player is bigger than the team.
The guy throttled an opposition player for going in too hard on our keeper. And stood by his actions. For that, he’s considered a hot head undesirable…SMFH 🤔
Harmony is required within the dressing room as much as possible in my book. I’m not suggesting that players have to be saintly but too much indiscipline affects how the whole works who ever you are.
This was meant to be a stand alone comment
Well said
And the coach made the right decision.
So what? No seriously bright Gooner would ever accept a person such as Guendouzi being right for a club and team which priroritises the all important dressing room harmony as the vital asset it is.
He was got rid of , CORRECTLY , because he was trouble whereever he went Guendouzi and his banishment was ONE of the reasons WHY I always kept faith in Arteta, as he had the good sense to get him out, back when our team was struggling for the cohesion both onfield and off it that we have, so thrillingly, today!
“Why I ALWAYS kept faith in Arteta”????
So what about when you wanted Arteta SACKED because he kept Xhaka and gave him a new and bigger contract??
Or had you forgotten that??
Sigh
🤪
I suspect anyone to do with Arsenal would happily turn back time and let the guy take Guendouzi in exchange for Houssem Aouar.
What did Joe Willock do that he was sold sorry given away to Newcastle