Matteo Guendouzi touched down in Marseille yesterday to put the finishing touches on a move to the Stade Velodrome. Initially, the 22-year-old will sign a year-long loan deal but the French club will have an obligation to buy the midfielder for £10 million next summer.
Once upon a time, Arsenal might have hoped for far more than that but after falling out of favour due to disciplinary reasons and having failed to set the world alight during a season in the Bundesliga, we’ll just have to settle for recouping our initial outlay (and most of the money spent on his wages).
Voilà @MatteoGuendouzi est a Marseille 💙👍 pic.twitter.com/oR9OlN5s61
— titi ( c’est toi le boss) (@Mode55489648) July 4, 2021
It remains to be seen whether Guendouzi fulfills his potential but ahead of his return to France, he insists that he’s as ambitious as ever.
“My dream has always been to develop myself at the highest level and to win the maximum number of titles,” he said.
“I am a competitor and greedy for titles. I want to meet the greatest champions as teammates and opponents, live my dreams, work hard to meet my expectations. I’m under contract with Arsenal and we have mutual obligations. There is interest from clubs from different leagues. Right now I’m one hundred percent focused on my recovery. In due time, I will decide with my advisors and my father which direction we are headed. ”
He added: “At the end of my career I want to have a résumé full of titles and trophies. That’s why I play football so I can experience these unique moments like winning the Champions League or the World Cup.”
Despite being part of a team that struggled for form and survived relegation in his absence – he was sidelined by a metatarsal injury during the run-in and required surgery – Guendouzi rejects suggestions that his year in Germany was a mistake.
“No, absolutely not, it was a carefully considered decision,” he said. “I gave everything for the club and the most important thing is that Hertha stayed in the Bundesliga. I used all my strength and abilities for the club and its project.
“And I would like to thank everyone in charge, supervisors, team-mates and fans of Hertha for their support in the fight to stay up. I am happy to have met all of these people and I feel great gratitude towards them.
“My foot injury is a stroke of fate. And a tough test, especially because I haven’t had an injury before that would require an operation. The worst part was that I couldn’t help my team in the league’s final sprint. But you have to put it into perspective during a pandemic.”
As for the injury, which isn’t expected to cause any undue problems when he undertakes his Marseille medical, he said: “I feel alive and well. The operation went well and successfully.
“I am well looked after by professionals who work with the doctors and physiotherapists of the French association.
“I’m doing very well on my rehab schedule and the medics are very satisfied. This injury made me mentally stronger.”
We expect to have more on Guendouzi’s Marseille move in the coming hours and days.
This deal works for both parties. Hope he matures and becomes the footballer we’d hoped he’d be, never like to see squandered potential even if it’s not with us
Well said . kid is a bit of a twat but wish him the best and hopefully he can learn how to channel his twatiness to only irate our opponents and their fans .
He did, to Maupay, no one liked it..
It’s true. Maupay who broke our goalie that very game. Sure it was a bit disrespectful, but I’ve heard 1000 things worse than that during my sports career, which was never even professional. He was the only to stand up for his teammate. If his freezing out was a result of arteta asking him to apologise and he wouldn’t because he said he was standing up for a teammate then it is on arteta. Drawing a line in the sand and making an example of such a pissy thing is on arteta, particulary as after this his two favourites (willian… Read more »
*correction Xhaka choked an opponent. Pepe was the one who “headbutted”😒 an opponent. I agree with everything you’ve written though. I still remember against after the Leeds game. Xhaka went to hug Alioski, Tierney however, was livid and was going to give Alioski the “Guendouzi” treatment. Granit actually pushed Kieran away from them. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I get that Xhaka shares a heritage with Alioski and is a very popular guy amongst the Albanian community in the U.K. but it looks quite bad to be chummy with a guy that used theatrics to get your teammate… Read more »
True, interesting point!
I don’t think Arteta dumped him for the Brighton game or he wouldn’t take him to Dubai. It’s there that he did something that was bad enough for him to never be seen in an Arsenal shirt again. We just don’t know what he did..
I don’t think it was for the comment, but there was noise that it had something to do with him not apologising. May have been something else, he’s clearly a bit difficult. Nonetheless, it can only be seen as a bit of a failure and when stacked up with what’s going on with Saliba we don’t look a very attractive option for Euro (particularly French) youth. Add to that no Euro football and Brexit.
Behaviour in Dubai has to be perfect, right?
If someone misbehaved over there whilst under the Arsenal name, that would be serious enough to cause big problems and disciplinary action.
Completely agree and real shame as Douzi has shown enough to suggest he will be a top player and certainly did not disappear in big games unlike a lot of his more experienced team mates. Also shows what poor man-management Arteta has, the tougher choice would have been to work with him and try to overcome the attitude problems, instead Arteta decided to just bin him off. He’s also shown himself to be very poor with his handling of Saliba and now Nelson another promising young player looking to leave as a result of MA favouring a past it Brazilian… Read more »
Think post this transfer window, we really need a top sales guy. Guendouzi might be shit with headers but he can play and he does have the potential. By the way can clubs loan two players from same club in the same window? Marseille have been doing quite a big number of loan signings it seems. Also I would have liked to see if we could loan Saliba to brighton with a clause insertion of minimum playing minutes and get Ben White for less cost and work on other signings.
Frankly, I don’t see why Edu and the newly appointed Garlick couldn’t simply just improve their efficiency. The majority of their work is off the pitch, and during the season, there’s no excuse whatsoever for inaction when it comes to some back-room negotiations or plotting squad management for the next season. Right now, everything on that front is so painfully slow!
Good riddance.
One down, nine to go.
Willian next…
If he is next, it’s going to be a long two years for us. I’d be hugely surprised if willian isn’t an arsenal player next season. Who’s going to match that salary for his [lack of] quality.
Pubs all across the country are thinking of closing again – so their football team doesn’t get lumbered with Willian.
Maybe he’ll mature and make the most of his talent, following in the footsteps of those calm,composed, amicable legends of Marseille’s history – Cantona, Zidane, Nasri, Barton, Balotelli. Never liked him after the salary taunting. He’s got plenty of time to turn things around, he’s not at the taxi bonking stage yet.
At least Bendtner was funny.
And as cool as fuck…
Zidane never played for Marseille, eventhough he s from there.
Well pointed out, here comes Hatem Ben Arfa on as a substitute.
You can add valbuena to that list
Nasri told Frimpong he could buy him, hired goons to beat Gallas, was banned for doping at the end of his career.
None in your list is calm and composed not even Zidane.
I think that’s the joke.
Yeah, I missed it pretty bad
Whoosh!
Yeah, it’s true that players like Cantona and Zidane could never quite get their behaviour under control. That’s why they never won anything.
Unfortunately Arteta and Edu messed this one up. He was one of the most promising midfielders in Europe. They didn’t have to tank his value because he taunted some Brighton player about his salary. It’s typical of Arteta / Edu reign that player values have tanked – we’ve either had to cancel contracts or take a huge loss. If the manager doesn’t fancy players or there’s no space for them in the squad (Reiss, Nketia, AMN etc.,), we need to preserve their value so that we get good money which can be reinvested in the squad. Look at the money… Read more »
It was more to do with him rucking with the manager & his team-mates, rather than the common narrative favoured by some fans that it’s down to ArTeTa & EdU.
Tell me which players have enhanced their values under Arteta. Auba, Willian, Laca, Pepe, Bellerin, Cedric, Partey, Leno…the list goes on, have all regressed. Saka, Tierny and ESR have been exceptional, and unfortunately, an exception. All the other players became bang average. The minimum we should expect is that players improve. If they don’t fit our style, yes, let’s sell them, but let’s preserve their value because the new players we bring in are not for free.
Which players have enhanced their values at Arsenal in the last 10 years? Barring a few, we’ve made a habit of buying players at exorbitant amounts only to let them run down their contracts or sold them for a pittance. Arteta and Edu have made mistakes (Willian being the prime example), but to claim this problem has arisen only during their time is nonsense.
We’ve also overrated Guendouzi as a player. He’s nowhere close to being one of the most promising young midfielders in Europe. Because if he was, there’d be a ton of elite clubs after him. He has potential but is extremely inconsistent. Getting nominated for Golden Boy means squat because we’ve seen a bunch of players getting nominated for that and do literally nothing noteworthy in their careers.
I don’t think he’s saying the problem has started under arteta. But is it not their job to fix it? They haven’t. Just as its their job to get us back into champs league. They haven’t. Add to that there are becoming more examples of our poor management of youth (douzi, Saliba, nketiah, willock, Nelson, AMN) than good example (Saka, ESR) . We’re affecting our reputation of being a club that gives youth a chance and we’re not improving.
They have fixed it. He’s leaving.
We’ve fixed the problem of Arsenal players continually losing value by selling Guendouzi? Interesting take…
Willock is not poor management – they just did exactly the right thing and loaned him to the Geordies where he had exactly the loan experience we all hope for. He would not have gotten that regular play here. I’m looking forward to seeing what happens there. Nketiah hasn’t taken his chances, and he has been given several. Neither has Nelson, but I still think he’s got the potential, just needs to gain the confidence to impose himself on the game. AMN seems to have a hang up with the position being offered to him – that’s on him, not… Read more »
Auba – down – due to age and size of contract Willian – No change (free agent) Laca – Down – we bought at the top of the market, age, contract length Pepe – down – we bought at the top of the market Bellerin – down – Physically declined perhaps due to injury Cedric – up – He was a free agent and an international Partey – no change – we’d get what we paid for him Leno – no change – we’d get what we paid for him I’m not sure you can pin any of that on… Read more »
Arteta wasn’t capable of getting the best out of Laca, Willian even Auba and Partey.
Pepe has absolutely progressed from when he arrived, and Partey just got here and had a stop-start first season so that is a loaded list. Gabriel has certainly enhanced his value, and Xhaka has proven himself a solid workhorse for a certain level.
Let’s also keep in mind we’re hardly the only club that sheds players that don’t make the grade. Poor recruiting has certainly been an issue.
Pepe may or may not have progressed but his value has dropped regardless simply because we overpaid for him
This notion of preserving a player’s value that you no longer want is a fallacy, a large part of their value is based on the importance they have to the selling club, if you don’t want them then they lose value. It’s why i find the idea of offering players we no longer want extended contracts to preserve “value” stupid, it doesn’t work, they don’t all of a sudden become more desirable to competitors or more important to us, they just become a financial drain. The best way of having a valuable squad is to have a squad of players… Read more »
I guess the Hertha manager saying he needs to grow up counts for nothing. A year of working with Guendouzi and he simply does not understand the most promising midfielder in Europe.
No mate.
This was not Arteta’s fault.
Arteta is responsible for a lot of things, but he cannot be blamed for Matteo Guendouzi being an utter twat.
Players come in so shapes and sizes. It’s the job of the manager to manage and get the best out of them even if they’re utter twats. Ex: RVP was an utter twat that Wenger transformed.
No it’s not, the managers job is to get the best results he can and if a player is detrimental to that effort he has every right to get rid of him
Someone remind me to put a few quid on him scoring and getting sent off in his first game against Arsenal. Seems that kinda guy.
In the Emirates Cup?
This is the right move.
Couldn’t even get Unai to take him back after all that flirting, bearing in mind it was Emery who gave him his chances.
Announce Lokonga.
Announce Tnetennba.
Is he coming to Besiktas?
It’s certainly possible now that his transfer value has tanked. Did you see that ludicrous display last night?
He could have been a special player for us but we’ve moved on and so will he next summer.
Good luck to him. Has a lot of potential, but needs to channel it properly to make it to the top.
Didn’t realise the Hertha kit was sponsored by Podolski
In three years, he will become a better player than Arteta ever was.
glad this is done
All these are just empty words, unless he changes his personality prompt, he’s never going to be a team player. He had loads of energy, but was just a bit of a headless chicken for me, not seen anything since to prove me otherwise.
Are Saliba & Guendouzi starting a mini Arsenal in Marseille…
Wants a career full of titles…. does he acrually have a 2020 Fa cup medal?
TGMTEL.