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