Matteo Guendouzi is expected to be sold this summer after his price-tag was slashed by £5 Million, with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said to have made his position clear on the subject.
The French midfielder left the club to join Hertha Berlin on loan in the summer, and has enjoyed a regular run of first-team football in the Bundesliga.
Despite enjoying a positive spell of form in Germany, he isn’t expected to be welcomed back to try and vie for a role in the Gunners first-team, with the FootballInsider claiming that Mikel Arteta has made his intentions clear on the subject.
Guendouzi is now said to be in the shop window, with Arsenal looking to raise £25 Million from his sale, £5 Million less than they were looking for in the previous summer.
Granit Xhaka and Thomas Partey have formed a keen partnership as Arsenal’s first-choice pairing this term, and are linked with a number of creative options to come in and challenge for minutes.
Last summer, The Athletic named the likes of Jorginho and Houssem Aouar with a move to North London, before a Deadline Day move for Thomas Partey, but the latter’s completed move isn’t expected to have ended hope of further additions to the role.
Should Guendouzi be given another chance at the Emirates? Will his departure prove to be a mistake?
Patrick
Mikel Artetas’ man management skills have often been questioned on here.
A while ago now, I floated an opinion that ONE of the issues Mikel inherited was damaging cliques taking hold at our place, longstanding cliques which Arteta was determined to eradicate.
“Conspiracy Theories” “Rubbish” and the like were the tone of some of the replies.
Strange that……………………………………………………………
Hertha Berlin;
“Arsenal loanee Matteo Guendouzi is going through footballing puberty and needs to mature fast, according to Hertha Berlin coach Pal Darda”
Schalke;
“Christian Gross became the Bundesliga club’s fourth managerial casualty of the season after winning just one game, with Sead Kolasinac and Shkodran Mustafi reportedly playing a role in his departure”.
Granted, Berlin does seem to be a very unstable environment. But, “no smoke without fire” regarding the latest turn of events ?
Gross’s sacking was inevitable and he may simply be a very poor manager, but was his departure hastened by certain new arrivals stirring the pot ?
He seems to think so, saying he would do “things differently” pointing to recent incomings.
I also remain firmly of the opinion, Emery was “thrown under the bus” at Arsenal in no short measure by certain players downing tools on him – hiding behind problems with our language rubbish.
Mikel has not only culled some deadwood in the last window, but seemingly thrown some “bad apples” out of the barrel !
Well said AJ! Lots to agree with and though I also think Emery WAS thrown under the bus – and I think him a good manager who really had no chance here, as he could not bring in or get out his own choice players.
BUT his language difficulties were his own fault , no one elses and he made virtually no improvement at all in his English, which WAS down to him alone.
It proved an important weakness and had he been fluent, then a different scenario may well have happened. We will never know now but I am very happy to have MA. Very happy indeed!
I love his firmness with getting out rotten apples and nonproductive players, so far. More to do, of course, in that direction!
jon, I agree with you on Unai Emery. Once certain players tried the same thing on Mikel Arteta, “management” realised that he had to be supported.
Thanks for putting into words similar thoughts to mine on the subject AJ.
It may not be the only reason, but it is I’m sure central to Emery’s team essentially imploding, and I have long believed there was an unhealthy clique at Arsenal, potentially involving Mustafi, Kolasinac and Ozil, all of whom were influential players when Emery joined. Guendouzi, already a troublesome kid, was probably empowered to become even more unruly by witnessing how they undermined his authority.
If you look at his time at PSG he had similar problems there, and almost totally lost control to the (admittedly higher profile) senior players.
So I think it possible that Emery’s biggest flaw is an inability to maintain the respect of and control over senior players if they become disenchanted. With a young, compliant team where his actions are not questioned he is possibly up there with the best, but the teams he succeeds at will never, by definition be the Superclubs.
I also think that the heirarchy rather too late became aware of this, but subsequently tasked Arteta to weed out the culprits as an unwritten part of his emplyment contract.
I agree with you and I also remember a report which stated that some of the players even mocked Emery’s bad English, so that kinda confirms your statement that he wasn’t in control of the squad and maybe lacked respect from some players. Good that MA took care of this and got rid of some rotten apples
Emery’s authority was undermined from day one due to his being appointed as “head coach” not “manager”.
The interesting fact about Emery’s tenure as manager of PSG, is that he has the best point per game average of any PSG manager in recent times, behind present manager Maurice Ponchettino who has only managed for 14 games.
Carlo Ancellotti 77 games 63.64% wins Trophies 1;
Lauren Blanc 173 games 72.83% wins Trophies 11;
Unai Emery 114 games 76.32% wins Trophies 7;
Thomas Tuchel 127 games 74.80% wins Trophies 6;
Maurice Ponchettino 14 games 78.56% Trophies 1.
So much for failure at a “big club” due to being unable to manage egos.
It means the grudge is there. Next will be Maitland-Niles, Seliba, Willock, Nelson, and Martinelli. These is the crop of youngsters that Arsenal should be built around. I’m whose brave enough to fire Arteta before he makes a mockery of this team. Is he gonna build a team around Xhaka, Auba, and Willian? Arteta doesn’t know what he’s doing. Does he want to buy trophies like Pep?
Hi Armoury.
In my humble opinion, 3 of the names you list will not be at Arsenal football club going forward.
Build ANY side around AMN ? Surely you jest.
No grudges.
Arteta is simply a manager who assesses, and makes tough decisions based on HIS assessment of players.
And thank God if the alternative is to build Arsenal F C around Maitland- Niles, Joe Willock & Reiss Nelson.
Armoury Only young people like you have grudges on here, in your case, against MA.
HE IS ,UNLIKE YOU, A MATURE MAN AND WILL RUN THE CLUB AS HE SEES FIT AND NOT TO PLEASE YOU AND OTHER KIDS WHO KNOW NOTHING AND WHO LUDICROUSLY ACCUSE A PRO MANAGER OF HOLDING GRUDGES .
SO GROW UP SONNY!
For the sake of your information, I’m older than Arteta. I started supporting Arsenal in 1999.
As long as Arteta want to build a team with 30+ yr old, its not gonna work. Those players are heading for retirement. At that age most players ate worried about their wages more than football. Grass is not always greener on the other side
If you were the same age as Arteta and began supporting the club in 1999, that’d make you 17. If you’re older than him it’d obviously make you at least 18… That’s old to start ‘supporting’ a football club. Most people start over a decade earlier. This makes you a bit of an oddity and that- explains your strange comments.
Guendo is simply an entitled little pr**k, whether or not he eventually grows up and matures is a coin toss at this point, so if someone is willing to fork over 25m for his services we should take it and run
sorry…I should of said “acts like an entitled…”
Arteta was slated by many fans when he decided to discipline Guendousi by sending him out on loan, but his decision has been vindicated by subsequent events.I do not think he has a future at Arsenal and any offer of 25m should be accepted.
Good managers are able to guide youngsters. Arteta does not have the skill to do that. One mistake, the player will be on sale. Who doesn’t make mistakes in this world?
Armoury.
You have an age obsession.
A certain Pep Guardiola in agreement with Alan Hansen before him (you may not know of Hansen) stated ” You Can’t Win Anything With Kids”.
Pep hasn’t done too bad has he ?
We are fine with Saka, Martinelli & ESR forming part of the Squad Mikel will build in his own image.