According to the Telegraph, Mikel Arteta’s decision to drop Matteo Guendouzi for Sunday’s 4-0 win over Newcastle came after a bust-up with the player during Arsenal’s winter break training camp in Dubai.
Aside from the Carabao Cup game with Nottingham Forest in later September, the 20-year-old midfielder had, until yesterday, been included in every matchday squad this season. Under Unai Emery, who helped sign him, he even started 14 consecutive games in the Premier League and earned a call-up to the France senior squad.
Life under interim coach Freddie Ljungberg and his successor Arteta has been less harmonious with Guendouzi starting just three of the last 12 league games. As a youngster, temperamental form can be forgiven, especially given the new tactics being implemented, but it sounds as though it’s his behaviour that has been more of a concern.
Asked in his post-game press conference why Guendouzi was not in the squad, Arteta said: “The reason is that players who, in my opinion, are training better, behaving better and are more applied to deliver on the pitch what we want, are the players that are selected.”
The report claims that an angry exchange took place in training between Guendouzi, Arteta and the other coaching staff after they were left unimpressed with the player’s attitude and body language in Dubai. It’s also suggested that the matter didn’t end there with frustrations also boiling over back at the hotel.
It sounds as though the Frenchman just needs to knuckle down and all will be forgiven; as evidenced by the fact Dani Ceballos, whose commitment had also been questioned, was restored to the starting lineup yesterday after training well.
Guendouzi is a hot-head on the field. Not difficult to imagine he can be a tough character when things don’t go his way off the field too.
Still, it’s probably nothing and at the age of 20, he still has a lot of learning to do in the next few years.
The thing is a childish hot head can be exploited by an older schemer on the other squad who will immediately spot how to roil him emotionally.
He has to be a Master, so I hope he takes Mikels whip with a large dose of positivity.
Or he’ll miss the chance and get (more) toxic
Listening to the podcast now, Mustafi transformation can be like when Christians get God.
Mustafi and Lacazette have a similar ‘energy’, and I would suspect similar mental issues.
If you’re ‘God’, you can ‘charge’ both dudes up and they’ll murder for you.
WTF???
After reading the heading, my first reaction was am not gonna work my head over who’s at fault and who’s not. In fact I think I ‘ve endured more than enough negativity as a fan of this club lately and am not gonna compound it with more esp when I ‘ve something positive to cheer about. The kid needs to learn from Ceballos tho. More of what happened yesterday pls.
He can humbly lesrn and work towards being as good as arteta, then wventually be as good as petit
Staying humble and putting his head where it matters will stand in good stead.
He’s at a good place to learn and grow. He can do whatever is necessary and expected of him to succed, or he can fuck about and throw his career away.
Yeh that’s the worrying thing unfortunately. He’s only 20 and has fallen out with management at two seperate clubs already. Carrying a reputation like this won’t help his career unless, may be if he’s as good as Messi. Self belief is one thing but at 20, you’re still learning and fighting to establish your self. Needs to be more humble, accept mistakes, correct and learn from them instead of throwing tantrums when things aren’t going your way. Don’t be Balotelli pls
He’s playing for Arsenal, you’re posting on Arseblog… Reality Check.
Shame this came out in the media. They could have said he is injured or something. He is not the best midfielder we have, but as far as giving 200%, he is the only player who gives a shit when heads drop. I wish him the best and hope this is just a one time thing.
Sometimes things should be said in the media as that might be just what he needs to knuckle down. He can take it the right way and knuckle down or he can sulk about it and arse about in the reserves. I think Arteta is making it clear to everyone that he will not stand for any nonsense. Good on him!
We are Arsenal, we have class. Wenger never did this.
I listened to Arteta’s presscon past night. I think this was his response to a question on Ceballos. He said initially there was a problem with his behavior, but then he changed and trained like an animal and he’s now back starting. Something along those lines.
You’ve made some pretty stupid comments in the past but this is easily the most laughable.
Martin, go do your homework and brush your teeth.
Naked Cygan. Arteta has only said to the media “The reason is that players who, in my opinion, are training better, behaving better and are more applied to deliver on the pitch what we want, are the players that are selected.” The report about the bust up is from the Telegraph. It’s not a quote from Arteta. There were alot of stories like this in the media under Wenger, like Wojciech Szczęsny smoking in the showers etc. That doesn’t mean it came from Wenger. I have already understood from your previous comments that you don’t like Arteta. But it might… Read more »
ehem. You’d do well to remember a certain Jay Emmanuel Thomas…
I’m okay with this. Nothing to get too worked up about quite yet. He’s 20, a hit head at times, and fully confident in himself. Maybe he’s started believing the hype a bit too much, nothing wrong with dealing him in. Hopefully this is a learning experience for him and he kicks in and gets it. If not and the attitude doesn’t get better, we could potentially make a decent profit from him. I like what he has to offer so I hope this is a learning moment, but more so I’m fully behind Arteta and what he says goes.
If we were doing great this season maybe it wouldn’t have mattered much but his place in the team coincides with the worse ever period of form for god knows how long.
I hope he’s mature enough to realize that he’s in the big league now and only a small number of humans in the whole world that have the same opportunity and talent he has.
The Non- Negotiable. Arteta doesn’t take prisoners.
Papa don’t take no mess–
yeeaaaw- hit me!
Agree with the comments on here. He’s young, is very much a character who wears his heart on his sleeve, so the occasional immature mistake can be forgiven. If the report is true, Arteta was right to drop him just as a reminder of who is in charge – I’m sure Guendouzi will learn from it.
Shame the papers picked up on it, but probably not much to worry about. I’ve got full confidence in Arteta’s ability to manage these kind of scenarios.
The papers always put a negative spin especially when it comes to Arsenal. I never really thought much about “traits” in our DNA, but the (most)media must all have anti-arsenal DNA, or something.
I will never understand who leaks these stuff, but I can totally understand Arteta if he is angry with Guendouzi, the kid is talented but lacks any kind of discipline on the pitch. I vividly remember conceding goals while Matteo is carelessly jogging back, and I’m sure it takes more time than a few weeks to iron that out.
Heard he once cussed out his coach at Lorient, so not surprised.
He should be taught how to channel his temperament into being a no-nonsense midfielder like Pat V was.
Matteo has history of this, it’s how we got to buy him so cheaply as he had a major bust up with his previous manager and there were doubts about his temperament. He needs to grow up and knuckle down or I can see him being sold for a nice profit in the summer. It’s up to him now.
I can imagine that he’s frustrated that he’s out of the team and might miss his chance to go to the Euros. I just hope he learns from this and imprioves. He’s got experienced French and French speaking pros like Auba and Laca to help him eat that humble pie.
Yessss hopefully Auba Laca can talk some sense into him. He’s so close to them so hopefully he will listen…
i am confused: does the article mean that if he carried on kissing arteta’s butt the way luiz and ozil were currently doing, he would have ended up starting yesterday and ceballos would not have played? or the “bust-up” is just a followup of matteo’s poort form?
If kissing Arteta’s butt made Luiz this good, can the entire team lick his arse please?
you can never be too confident with old good luiz… he is full of suprises….
If obeying Heirarchy is arsekissing, you’re non-negotiably a kid.
no-no i am ok with hierarchy allright, i just remember how luiz was kissing emery’s ass last may, together with some other afc players who were praising emery when he was in charge and are now kicking him…
some players can still play well without the need for that exercise (like ceballos)
Give it up mate. It’s clearly a losing battle
We should all be suspicious with these reports. Why did it came out after the match and not after the trip? Even if true I dont see a problem making him angry as a motivation to train harder…
His only motivation should be giving his best for his organisation exactly ‘according to how the leader directs him’.
Not listening to the Twitter kids who are offended when any form of authority comes around
So people are motivated because a leader instructed them to do so?
Just looking at his Facebook and twitter pages, he is still upset over losing his place after Unai Emery left. I take it down to inmaturity. Even superstar like Ozil have to swallow their pride to get back their starting place. He need a life coach, not a football coach.
Mikel is a people-professional. Matteo should be fine, or he could easily find himself at a Burnley or Spanish team as their only attacking tactic (not the end of the world). Nobody wants irresponsible organisation members
And here’s one more negative that still lingers from the Emery era. I like Guendouzi for a 20-year-old, he’s done a lot of good things on the pitch for a player that age asked to play as much as he has. But he really shouldn’t have been such a fixture under Emery; not only did this come at the expense of Torreira not playing, but it created a misconception for Guendouzi of his actual level at this point in time. I don’t want that to sound harsh. I just think that being given a starting place so regularly, even after… Read more »
Well said.
Okay, i don’t like Coaches revealing training issues of players in public, it will only get impatient fans on the back of players. Give it to Emery to keep Ozil’s issues under the wrap for such a long time. Come on, some of you still can’t make your own bed at 20 years young. Guendouzi is a developing player, he should be encouraged and nurtured not vitiated.
Arteta, like most coaches, merely said some players are training better than others, and that led to his selection — it reveals nothing.
Guendouzi is learning how to be a professional; this will come with ups and downs, and he’s in a down-spell right now. If he wants to be considered for the starting lineup, he knows what he needs to do.
Read the news ?
So you don’t intend to buy the Telegraph in future then?
I’m not surprised, but how is what they have placed in their rag anything to do with Arteta?
You assume that Arteta has ‘spoken’ to someone and ‘revealed training issues’. Has he? Or are you one of the many people who will read a story written in a certain way and fill in the gaps yourself?
It’s the oldest ‘journalistic’ trick in the book and I think you fell for it.
So tough, we will likely never know. Great young players will almost always be temperamental. Media will always try and get any story possible. A new coach will always need to establish authority and a great coach must always have authoritarian characteristics. Arteta is attempting to thread the needle of almost unlimited media access so it seems he offers up bits of honesty he knows will almost surely be made public so that he controls things. Welcome to reality, time will tell if Matteo will soon learn if he and Arteta are a good match?
Most of us on this page have been 20 at some point, and in retrospect, no matter what line of work we’re in, we’ve all had incidents like that. He’s a regular pickle, like the rest of us. Provided he buckles down and gets his head straight, no reason why he can’t be our own Roy Keane.
He’s a kid. With a lot to learn on and off the pitch. He’s gonna do okay.
“Body language.” Laughable excuse on its own for criticism of anyone… wonder if KSE flew in one from MSNBC.
Does anyone know what is happening with Ainsley? Also missing, from the last two match day squads.
He’s greatly underappreciated.
Guendouzi is not much of a prospect. Don’t care. Sloppy, not a dangerous offensive player. Happy to see him out of the 11. Now if they can finally play Torreira, Ceballos, and Ozil.
I don’t know why it’s such a big deal, only so many subs, we had Torreria and Willock as midfield cover, someone has to miss out. Expect he’ll be back on Thursday and one or 2 of the others will miss out. Creativity in Cabbelos was the right call against a side that sit that far back.
I hate to imagine my 20 year old self covered in the press and social media as intrusively and obsessively as professional footballers are today. Actually, I’d probably find it uncomfortable today at the supposedly wiser and calmer age of 55!
These are the times we live in, and of course there’s no going back, but I for one try to stay neutral on reports like these. Good luck to Matteo and Mikel! COYG
He’s strikes me as the petulant type. Probably just needs to stop being a dick.
Well I woke up thinking Guendouzi was dead after a dream I had so this is pretty good news to me
Storm in a tea cup.
Young chap, hot blooded Gallic…probably good he has the passion.
I see nothing to suggest he is slack on field when performing for us.
Pepe OTOH …
So probably will boil over and be back on track.
What’s being French got to do to being hot headed? English 20 years old are all cold cucumber?
I have nothing to say but have decided to comment anyway.
Like all kids, he has to learn and if he has anything about him, he will. One thing he has learned is that if he doesn’t learn and quickly, he will not be in the matchday squad…
isn’t this exactly the issue he had in France?
One thing I’ve really liked about Arteta is he is rewarding players for effort, focus and performance in training which has been one of the big issues with the club over the last few years when certain players would be given a spot based on their name or salary vs their performance and effort. It may cost us here and there with younger players making mistakes, but in the long run will do wonders for the consistency and performance of all players.
I’ve always said that Guendouzi needed guidance. He appeared to me to be a gazelle in the headlights of a car one moment and a puma striding powerfully after its prey.
I hope Arteta gets him under control for him to realise his chances to be maybe an Arsenal legend one day.
I did think he should have been sent on loan in the championship for 6 months, there he would have learnt the “tough” side of the PL game.
He’s in good hands with Arteta. It’s up to him now to get mature enough to understand that. I think he’ll get there.
Otherwise, if Ceballos keeps on more like this last match, see if an agreement can be had.. I liked the qualities he brought this last match and hope to see more of them against all levels of competition.
He’s still a young lad, hopefully he realizes his mistakes and turn around, better ?
This is what I want from my manager. Shape up or ship out. It is obvious there is a discipline that is being meted out, and I am all for it. I think we had a squad of mollycoddled players who are having rude awakenings.
this kids brain is still developing & he’s doing what he loves on some of the biggest stages. this is passion. when he learns how to lasso said passion his shoulders will stop sulking & his chin will stop dropping. he is just still learning.