French journalist Romain Canuti has claimed that Arsenal have a clause in Matteo Guendouzi‘s loan deal which allows them to recall him from Marseille.
The 22 year-old is thoroughly impressing since returning to Ligue 1 this summer, with France boss Didier Deschamps even moving to include him in the squad for the UEFA Nations League finals of late.
Manager Mikel Arteta recently refused to rule out a return to north London in the future, leading to speculation that bridges could well be mended after the Spaniard fell out with the youngster on two occasions during his first season with the club.
Marseille currently have the midfielder on a season-long loan however, and with an option to buy believed to have been included in that deal, but journalist Canuti claims that the Gunners have a special clause which could allow them to recall him instead.
Canuti told Le Phoceen’s podcast via Le10 Sport: “There is a clause that allows Arsenal to get him back just in case.
“And (manager Mikel) Arteta made a statement not so long ago saying ‘We’ll see for Guendouzi, we’ll make a point later’.”
“To see because there is this clause, all the clubs do this. But many other parameters come into play because Arteta and him are not the great love and they have to show if they are going to put someone on (Albert) Lokonga’s legs.”
If we allow him to see out the season in France, I struggle to believe that Marseille will not move to keep him beyond his current loan deal, and I can’t help but believe we would be missing out on value by allowing him to leave for the current price.
On top of that, Guendouzi has shown that he is good enough to play in the Premier League, and even play for Arsenal whilst retaining the potential to be even better than he has shown,
Assuming he can reign in his attitude a little, Arteta should be able to find a place for him back in our first-team squad, but I’m not entirely sure about this supposed recall clause.
Patrick
According to one “report” Marseille struck a loan to buy deal with Arsenal which allows Marseilles to acquire Guendouzie for as little as 12 mill. Till we know the full details we can but speculate. Guendouzie is currently paid 40k per week. I am sure OM would offer Guendouzie much more on a new deal and so I believe Arsenal would need to offer Guendouzie at least 100k p/w minimum to heal the wounds between he and Arteta. But August 31st 2022 is a long long way away anything could happen.
I am not so sure marseille would offer Geun much than the £40k he is on. European and French clubs are not flush with cash at the moment so I expect the days of big-ticket transfers and big salaries to be on hold for a while. Perhaps with the exception of players like Mbappe.
We dont want him back irrespective of hiw much we could sell him elsewhere because truth be told we might not be able to sell him or he may choose to sgick it out and cause us more problems…. yes has great ability but he isnt a fit at arsenal!!
@Nigel Hill
Speak for yourself there dude. You’re not the voice of the collective…
I rate Matteo very highly. And consider him streets ahead of our current crop of midfielders….
You’ve been brainwashed by Arteta and the media to see Gouendouzi as a bad player. Arteta is destroying people’s careers. His lack of knowledge for the game, is the reason behind all these mess. He’s supposed to guide these youngsters and not victimise them. Arsenal is gonna sell most of quality players for cheap because of Arteta
Troll alert
Now you are talking. True.
Arteta should know he is now a coach. He needs to show father figure traits, not Siblings traits with players.
@Nigel.
I am with you.. i hope we don’t see Guendouzi back at Arsenal.
Poor rotten and stinking attitude. A trouble maker.
Patrick, you write “assuming he can reign in his attitude,etc”, as if that is a distinct possibility. I suggest it was and will remain a vain hope and that players of bad character, which IMO he certainly is, can never change their attitude.
And so IMO, a return for him is quite out of the question. Events have already shown that MA shares this opinion, as do all wiser fans too.
Arrogant trouble makers are poison in a dressing room, esp one full of young and still learning young players. Simple as that !
Remember Pogba, Lukaku et al, you let them go and loose big.
I’d welcome him back in a heartbeat. He can then show our midfielders how to go about their business for real…
let him stay in france, Guendouzi’s attitude and behavior has not gotten better.
saliba on the other hand can have another chance.
I also would like to see him back at Arsenal!!! We watch him played under Emery in midfield at such a young age. The experience he getting, being around the national team with all those fantastic players he’s only going to get better. At 26-28 he might be one of the best midfielders around.
it would be great if we can have him back in Arsenal. I perceive him as someone that has the drive to be a true gunners.
MA, get him back.
I’ve never seen more than glimpses of this fantastic player that others see. He had an engine and was really good at falling down when touched. I remember that. But as he is now a senior French international, what do I know. I’m sure he’s improved and on talent alone he deserves a shot.
My greater concern, like many, is that he seems stuck in puberty. Bowyer and Barton come to mind. Maybe he’ll grow out of it, I doubt it. While it’s not a straight choice between the two, give me a young player with Lokonga’s attitude any day of the week.
I think my issue is risk versus reward. I don’t see Guendouzi as an incredible talent. So I dont think he will ever be as good as say Suarez or Cantona who were royal pains in the behind but were worth the risk because they were so good.
@Voyageur
Risk vs reward, are you serious? What risk is there? Mostly, why was this never a problem when he played under Emery?
A couple of negative articles and social media sheep labels Matteo a “rotten apple”… But some fans still want Bissouma. Even after sexual assault charges. Go figure…SMDH
Not sure if that’s a rhetorical question but yes I’m serious. My view isn’t based on a few media articles. It’s based on series of incidences at Arsenal, Hertha and his club before Arsenal. Another poster did a good job of listing them a month or so ago. I dont think he’s going to change anytime soon.
In my opinion the risk is that he doesn’t mature, doesn’t fulfill his potential and becomes a distraction. Because I dont rate him as highly as you and others do, I don’t think the reward is worth the risk.
Appreciate you’ve got a different view and, although you didn’t ask, I wouldn’t be happy if we got Bissouma (I’ve been a Dolphins fan for 40 years but if they make the trade for Watson then I’m done with them)
I will never Understand this deal. Sold for 11M and then bought a vastly inferior player in Lokonga for 17M. Strange deal.
@Zert
RealTalk 👍🏿
Whatever his attitude is. Bad or not that bad, i am sorry but if we sell him for 11 that is a terrible piece of business. Like mavropanos. Both could have been soldfor 20/25 mininum. Especially arsenal did that two deals last summer when they were already (especially mavro) showing evolution and being ready or at least equivalent to the quality we have. So good for a good club or even a bigger one like us. It is not like we are rich. We lost a lot on them, 20/30m mininum that could have been re invested in the next windows.
Pls we should stop painting guendozi bad. He is a good player and a good manager should be able to manage such fiery character; of which Wenger is well renowned for. If he were that bad his current manager at Marseille could have said something.
After all, we had similar past players who don the arsenal jersey such as van persie, viera and we neva ever heard Wenger exposing them like the way arteta did with dozi.
Have you done ANY research on Guendouzi and his past managers?
@Mark2.0
I bet your”research” skipped over when he played for us under Emery. Because he played all of 90 mins under Arteta…But hey, you did your “research” on him…🤔
NY_ Gunner, Well your opinion on Guendouzi is abundantly clear and so is mine, which is the polar opposite from yours.
But I suggest neither of our opinions carry any weight whatsoever , though I warrant mine is the one that will be decided upon ; indeed already HAS BEEN decided upon.
And I suggest that reality is all that matters, as everything else is purely academic and of no consequence whatsoever.
I AM VERY RELIEVED ABOUT THAT TOO!
Our midfield needs backup because Thomas Partey is injury prone and Granith Xhaka is the king of Red Card, imagine what will happen when this two is out at once? Are we going to rely on lokonga and Niles? We should dish Niles away and manage guendouzi, we can also dish out chambers or Mari and bring in Saliba. Also I prefer bellerin as second option to tomiyasu than having sedic soares.
His attitude is reminiscent of every youngster, the fact that it isn’t publicised doesn’t mean that they don’t have the tendency to misbehave or they don’t in training..
we saw last season how Nketiah fell out with Ceballos, it was quickly washed away..
Even during when Emery’s reign was coming to an end, we heard all sorts of stories that the “young players were openly mocking his English”.. and I doubt Matheo was part of that cos he was Emery’s boy true and true…
We have so many examples of players that were hot headed while in their youths e.g Rooney and RVP etc but with proper management and handling they were improved..
we just didn’t manage the situation well.. He needs another chance cos he is obviously talented and will definitely improve
Nicely said
What an absurd premise. Being an asshat has nothing to do with being young and isn’t the same as hot-headed either.
Where is our technical director in all of this? Why isn’t he saying anything? What’s the club’s own perspective? Why is it only Arteta who decides if the player stats or goes, irrespective of his financial value? Where is Edu?
dgr8xt- same question I ask all the time
too much power given to a rookie coach
People can praise or slag off Gouendouzi but that only hides the decision by us to loan two players out and buy players to replace them, one being undersold, the other being ostracised because both deemed not good enough for our team. The two though are good enough to play in the champions league, they are near the top of their respective league, play every week, one being captain and one getting picked regularly for the league team of the week. The worrying thing is wether they have been replaced by players far better than them and that still has to be proved. The other very worrying thing is the failure of any type of man management of either for varying reasons. NOTHING has been proved the right decision letting them go to Marseille yet and at the moment still looks a baffling one but time will tell and not the sayers on sites like this. Still for them, they are playing a higher brand of football than all of our players at the moment and Champions league as well. I just see no logic as to why we kept players like Kolasinac, Xhaka, Mari, Suarez and Elnenny and let them go out, when they are clearly better than those left behind.
whenever you give the keys to a “fragile” manager it’s certainly not uncommon that anyone deemed to be a “loose canon” could become a “casualty”, regardless of the fact that it might not be in the best interests of the club long-term
now I’ve spoken at length about some of the seemingly entitled brat behaviour of Guendo, both here and elsewhere, so I’m certainly not oblivious to the concerns a manager might have with him in the fold, but that doesn’t mean it required an excommunication with no real sense of purpose, minus getting him functionally out of the manager’s hair
it seems clear to me, based on our current roster, that he could have carved out a productive role here, yet this amateur hour administrative team sees it more appropriate to offer him up for peanuts, then go and throw considerably more money at alternatives, who likely have a lower ceiling
with that in mind, this team simply must stop shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to anything asset management related, as this would go a long way to proving that those in charge are passionately committed to changing our organizational narrative