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.
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