Marseille boss Jorge Sampaoli has claimed that Arsenal loanee Matteo Guendouzi is on his way to becoming one of the best in the world.
The Gunners may well regret the decision to allow him to join Ligue 1 side, with him joining on loan last summer before agreeing a permanent switch to the club come the end of the season.
While he remains tied to Arsenal at present, some may rue his absence in our squad as we struggle for form following the absence of Thomas Partey through injury, and with our top-four aspirations drifting away.
Guendouzi remains on course to play in the elite European competition next term however after helping his side to sit firmly in second in the French division.
The youngster, who is set to turn 23 in the coming days, has come in for praise from his current boss at Marseille, who claimed that he is not only physically ‘exceptional’, but describes him as a central part of his side.
‘Guendouzi’s physical condition is exceptional. He can recover very quickly, he has less risk of injury,’ Sampaoli is quoted in the Metro as stating.
‘He has also managed to impose himself, which can be seen with his selections for the France team. Finally, he is the soul of the team.
‘He has not progressed thanks to me, it is in general, he has gained in maturity. He is on the way to becoming one of the best midfielders in the world.’
While Guendouzi clearly had some immaturity issues while at Arsenal previously, he is still a young man, and with the talent that he showed from a really young age we should have dealt with this one differently.
It is inevitable that Matteo will end up at a bigger club one day, and I wouldn’t be shocked if he became a key player for the likes of Real Madrid down the line, while I wouldn’t be shocked if we continued with Xhaka as our main man for another four years.
Does Arteta struggle with certain personalities? Does anyone else already regret allowing Guendouzi to go, even without considering the low fee we will receive?
Patrick
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Video – Mikel Arteta post-Brighton “It’s time to criticise ourselves”
not as good as sambi,xhaka,elneny, dame right he is
No one can deny the ball carrying ability of Guenduzi the problem he has with Arteta and the club is he is ill disciplined and hot tempered. As per Skills we know his tarlents before buying. It is possible he improves and become mature as he grows up across Europe. I think Arsenal should give him another chance.
We didn’t regret it a bit
Guenzo+torreira+Niles are out to replace lokonga which has been nothing but world class since he arrived.
Another good business done by arteta and edu.
Now it looks like the way our center forward is set under arteta are meant to struggle. Laca has never gone this long without hitting the target. It happened with Auba, now laca is the next.
Not saying both are saint tho, but auba seems to be proving he still got it. Considering many of the fans said he’s finished.
* to be replaced by lokonga*
The last sentence of the article says it all. Arteta struggles with big personalities, it is costing Arsenal dear and probably Arteta.
An idiotic decision to let Guenduezi, go and for what? Pride. A normal human being would have known how to deal with his temperament and worked with him to mature both on and off the field. But not our Mikeal. He got it wrong once again. Everyone could see that the kid had potential while at Arsenal. This is what managers are for to develop and get the best out of their players.
Guendouzi will never be good enough. Even when he was getting hyped by everyone I could see a big flaw in his game. His positional play is super poor. He is everywhere and drawing the team back. Huge holes everywhere in the midfield. But oh well, he runs around with his hair flinging everywhere so everyone assumes he is hardworking and doing a lot. He simply flatters to deceive. He will never be a great midfielder. Never!
@Eric Blinks
Funny, how the keyboard football manager, knows more than actual football managers…
I think you’ve been blinking too much to really see whats going on…IJS
So, which actual football manager? Which big team is after him? Can he compare to Tochemeni at Monaco? One problem with most of you on here is your ITK. You assume a lot and a true reflection of Arsenal as a team. Over hype nonsense daily. Who is Gendouzi? He was so good no top team in Germany signed him up while he was there? In our starting 11 you can barely name 4 players worth been on there. But all you guys do is come here and hype them up all day deceiving yourselves.
Eric you make no sense at all and you think you know better than actual football professionals? You may not rate him but that means not a lot really, the article is about his progress and future.
Reggie you are the one who don’t make any sense. Yes, I can know more than an actual football manager. A football manager is not always right as we have seen over and over again. Their judgement can be flawed. And it happens a lot more than you can imagine. so, you are the one without sense here. Get sense
That says it all!!!!!
@Eric Blinks, you’re right he wasn’t wanted in Germany. Dropped by Hertha Berlin because of his attitude. People on here are quick to blame Arteta yet don’t bother to look at the facts regarding Guendouzi and other players that have left us. Moody, stubborn personality and resistance to advice are just some of the words that were used to describe Guendouzi while on loan to Hertha by their Head Coach Pal Dardi.
@Herr Drier
You and ya boy Eric need to get outta ya feelins. It’s not about what he did or didn’t do at Hertha. It’s about where he’s at “NOW”…
Get off your knees for Arteta and wipe your chin. You’re droolin…IJS
OI!
Who on Earth mentioned Arteta except yourself??
Get off YOUR high horse and stop trying to cause arguments. It never ends well i assure you…
@NY_Gunner, you need to wind your neck in fella. While it’s what he’s doing at Marseille this season, his problems have cost him at 2 different clubs. His attitude may be excepted in his native France, but not in England or Deutschland… 595.
NY-Gunner you are the one who need to pull your head outta Geoudozi’s whatever. Everyone doesn’t have to see from your rose tinted lenses. You are on here daily hyping up players that no other quality team wants. Arsenal is average now because of fans like you. You cherish and love mediocrity. It looks good to you. It is what you live for. How can any right thinking and sound Arsenal fan be hoping for Guendeouzi? What is he coming to contribute to them team? Who is he? What has he done? We are our own problem and we have a lot of fans to match the problem. It is difficult to even hope we will ever turn out great again with fans like you with us!
My lungs 😂😂😂
With the exception of the hair flying around you could also be describing Xhaka, Partey, Lacazette or Elneny who does have hair. But, think back. Guenduezi was thrust into the EPL as a 20 year old from the French second division and given a lot of responsibility and playing time with no learning curve in a hitch pitch team. You are right Mr Blinks he was raw and mistake prone but I can only imagine now how good he could have been playing alongside Partey, Odegaard and ESR.
When we were calling for Arteta to reinstate Guendouzi, we were accused of not wanting the team to progress. Almost every player who Arteta has given away has become better under other managers
Saliba
Guendouzi
Torreira
Aubameyang
Mavropanos
It cannot be a coincidence. Never
Bellerin
I always liked Guendouzi, his immaturity was the only thing that needed attention by the coaches to humble him down a bit and channel his aggression positively. He will be world class I have no doubt. He shows more fight and leadership than our experienced players, that’s nuff said.
Was he really immature? He liked winding people up a bit but most footballers do.
Guendouzi is all the above mentioned above stubborn, rebellious with a massive potential.
Here is where am a little disappointed, was hoping Wenger as a great Frenchman that both parties would have respected, step in some how and calm things down a bit.
My advise at the time extend his contract, and send him on loan, he may well settle down when he becomes mature, nothing was wrong with his aggressions and want to use the ball and take peoples on, t’s that kind of passion make players like Louis Suarez is what he is today.
We need players like Guendouzi in our last two games, I said it before, it’s a player in the Guendouzi mould we need along side Partey, he will be a Marquee player in another 18moths
Maybe immature was a bit harsh, I think he had a tendency to be carried away a bit more which affected the formation and game plan. His positioning was not so good. Which by all means, could have been easily rectified with proper coaching. Everything else he had is what our current players lack, fight.
For me you could always see that he was going to turn into something special! time will still tell. Kudos for Eric for coming out and truly saying how he feels. In the long run he could be right or wrong but it doesnt matter what we think or say its what the manager does and we all can see that at this present time we could do with him playing in our midfield. Many in my opinion were way to quick too jump on this bad boy image that he got labelled with. I hope he does become one of the best!
He will be one of the best, no doubt.
I thought Matteo was a fantastic find when we brought him, I enjoyed watching him play and I believed he would have a great Arsenal career
But that was from my seat in the North East corner Upper Tier
We don’t know what goes on outside of watching the team play, there were signs of his immaturity in his play at times but it’s a team/squad game and if his behavior at Colney and in the dressing room was having a negative effect on the other young prospects I can understand why Arteta wanted him out of the way
I appreciate that Mikel is not everybody’s cup of tea on here but surely it’s difficult to argue against his ability to unite the players that he has
Guendouzi may well come back, who knows, he might think he has unfinished business in English Football, if he reaches out to The Gaffer in the summer or The gaffer leaves it could happen
Meanwhile I think similarly now about Sambi, he hasn’t had the same exposure as Matteo yet but maybe that will be a good thing in the long run
How can a player like Guendouzi be sold for £10 or £12 mil in the summer, something is seriously wrong.
If it was Chelsea would we be coating those figures?
What’s the purpose of Edu, the gaffer main responsibility is coaching the first team.
Arteta will even be disappointed that we got some money from Guendozi’s sale. The apprentice always prefer to let players go for free.
People complain that the young boy is indiscipline, even artete is lacking discipline in many areas and that is why arsenal not making any tangible progress under him.
Hmmmm “Arteta will even be disappointed that we got some money from Guendozi’s sale. The apprentice always prefer to let players go for free.”
Really?????????
Quite easy Gun Smoke. Player has attitude problems at his parent club and then at the club he’s at loan at. His parent club then decide to loan him to another club with fixed transfer fee. Sometimes it works for the parent club, sometimes it doesn’t. £10m or £12m will still be a profit for us, plus the fee for his loans.
A French international playing first team football for a big side should be fetching 30-40 at his age ,so there is no argument that we are once again getting fleeced but that’s the norm in the last 2 years .
Personally I don’t rate him and couldn’t care less if he’s sold but it’s the way we handle our business in regards of getting top dollar for our players
But he wasn’t an international when the deal with Marseille was signed. He made his debut in November last year.
MA needs to be flexible.He could do no wrong when he was winning
Admitedly he was hard done by injuries but that is part and parcel of soccer
The next 2 games could define the season.Both the blues and rd will be favourites. A hdl will be suicidal
The opposition high calibre forwards
will score a hatful of goals
Its mission im possible but anything is possible though I am pessimistic
A gooner mention Arteta ability to unite the squad and I tend to agree,
Football is really a team sport so the unity is paramount.
The kid is really a polarizing player that for sure.
Just not happy with the few quid we will be getting for him if good sense does not prevail.
Our way of doing business must be addressed Herr Drier,
He is an all action pack midfielder, brave and dynamic, would be nice to see his contract renew and he is allow to play elsewhere
I liked the player and liked the way he reacted at Brighton after the injury to Leno, reminded me of how the players used to stick up for their team mates in years gone by.
I would say that the Arteta made his mind up about Guendouzi at the training camp in Dubai the other year when there was an altercation at training and at dinner that night.
I totally agree that the club need to address the fees we are getting for players, but we must remember players are only worth what someone is willing to pay, and their past will play a part in that.
On a side note, the term Gooner is banded about far too easily.
MA needs to be flexible.He could do no wrong when he was winning
Admitedly he was hard done by injuries but that is part and parcel of soccer
The next 2 games could define the season.Both the blues and td will be favourites.
Its missiom possible but anything is possi le though I am pessimistic