Various reports this evening say that Matteo Guendouzi will join Hertha Berlin on loan for the 2020-21 season.
The 21 year old has been out of favour since the defeat to Brighton just after the restart, and although he has been integrated back into training, has failed to make the match day squad for any game so far.
Leaving aside the Premier League, his absence from the Carabao Cup ties against Leicester and Liverpool were an indication that he is not in Mikel Arteta’s plans.
Guendouzi is a player that Arsenal had hopes of generating a transfer fee for at the start of the window, but despite links to clubs like Villarreal, Valencia, and PSG, no significant offers have arrived.
James Benge of Football London reports that we won’t be paid a loan fee for him, but the Bundesliga outfit will cover his wages.
I’m told Hertha Berlin will not pay a loan fee but will cover all Guendouzi’s wages.
— James Benge (@jamesbenge) October 4, 2020
It’s the second time Hertha Berlin have tried to sign an Arsenal midfielder, having been linked with Granit Xhaka when the former captain went through his troubles during last season.
The transfer window closes at 11pm tomorrow night, and Lucas Torreira is expected to follow his teammate out of the club, joining Atletico Madrid on loan – a deal expected to be confirmed tomorrow.
Earlier Mikel Arteta again insisted the club were doing everything possible to bring in new players, saying, “I am confident that we know exactly what we want to do, that we are all trying our best to finalise the deals that we want – whether it is sending people on loan or bringing someone in.
“We have complete connection and cohesion between myself, Edu, the board and the ownership. Let’s see what happens in the next 36 hours.”
Fans will be hoping that some midfield reinforcement can be found before tomorrow night.
As ever, we’ll be covering everything here on Arseblog News and our dedicated transfer deadline day live blog which kicks off at 7am tomorrow right until the close of the window.
Surely the club can force him to extend by 12 months before allowing this deal to go through. Guendouzi must be desperate to avoid a year on the sidelines, at his age, and with the Euros coming up.
I don’t see how we could “force him”. What happens to him under contract is a matter for agreement between the club and the player/agent. That said, considering no club was interested in buying him, either outright or as part of a cash + player deal, just getting him off the books is a major achievement for Arsenal. This looks like the very best deal we could have got for him, albeit a pretty sad statement of affairs for a player who cost £7million or so.
Why would you extend with a club that clearly does not want you?
If his options were extend and leave on loan, or rot in the reserves for a year, he’d have to sign up. Chelsea do it all the time!!
Imagine the reverse too, he extends and has a bad year on loan, then we’ll be struck with him for a lot more than 12months by this time next year! Another saga, god no!
He’s got more chance of representing France at the Eurovision next year than at the Euros. We can’t even get a loan fee for him!
Deschamps was once impressed and called him to the national team. If his performances in the Bundesliga are good and there are injuries, he will be called. For example, Nzonzi got too old now.
With Camavinga, Aouar and even Ndombelé on form Guendouzi is nowhere near the national team again.
If reports that our window is done in terms of incomings, our midfield options are pretty limited. We can’t afford any injuries to Dani & Xhaka. Pretty risky.
They must be confident of at least a midfielder coming in, to let 2 go out on loan.
You forget our LANS midfield maestro: Elneny!
There is also AMN, Saka (if needed) and ESR and a pretty damn good coach who can communicate and train what’s needed, like the creative pass forward. Rotating the youth in for the lesser games and for the more difficult keep the experienced heads in.. I’m saying that another experienced cover would be nice to have.
If a midfielder isn’t coming in, we still have some numbers: Xhaka, Elneny, Ceballos, Willock, Smith-Rowe, and surely Saka and Maitland-Niles can do a job in there if it’s a three.
Very underwhelming move for Guendouzi if this comes to pass, but perhaps some humble pie is what he needs and hopefully he’ll come back to us in better condition or be moved on for a decent return.
What’s the update on ESR’s return? If we are unable to bring in new additions to our midfield, I’d love to see Arteta come up with an internal solution to address our woes. Move Willian to the left side middle, deploy Ceballos and ESR alongside him and we might actually have a pretty decent chance at creating a functioning midfield.
Smith-Rowe rejoined full training last week.
Good riddance Guendouzi, you have potential but not as much as you think you do.
One more to go?
Yes, the dream lives! (for another 24hrs least)
In Arteta we trust
No seriously i don’t care anymore about the transfers. They messed it up so if, then it will be a panic buy/loan.
But i trust Arteta to to the best with the ressources he has.
Hertha Berlin? That’s a bit left field. Didn’t see him linked to them at all. I guess if we can’t sell a loan is the best option. Maybe he’ll grow up a bit or else play so well that we take him back or sell for a good fee.
He said “It’s Hairtha Berline or nothing. I am tired of being a fringe player. Locksdown is over and I mane well”
Maybe he just likes combs
Is this really the best we could manage?
Maybe this one is not our fault.
Imagine coming 8th and actually going into the new season with a weakend midfield.
Only Arsenal can pull that shit off.
7 million net spend for club aiming to reach Top 4, laughable.
I keep seeing people to refer to our “weakened” midfield, but at the moment isn’t it the same midfield as last season, minus Guendouzi, plus Elneny? So maybe not strengthened, but maybe not technically weakened either. (Unless and until Torreira does leave on loan, in which case, yes, we are down one.)
Not weakened, but it was rubbish last year and the source of our problems. We have shown good resilience in midfield when Defending stoutly in a defensive counter attacking formation, but we Struggle to outplay teams we are meant to be above… Consistently, even und mikel. Sorry bit our midfield is mediocre no matter how much you try to tell yourself otherwise.
Arteta’s stubbornness to banish him from training and letting the world know he has attitude issues has cost us a potential transfer fee, probably enough to pay that extra 10mil we needed to get Aouar.
Arteta’s approach is to reward good behaviour and punishing bad. He keeps the door open to anyone serious about working hard for the team.
The approach has worked miracles on most of the squad, but not on a few spoilt and selfish individuals.
Is Arteta stubborn? Yes, and its working.
Yes but doing it so publicly has meant one of our only sellable assets is going on loan for no fee with 2 years left on his contract.
We didn’t pay that much for him, he shat the bed last season, and though he is young he isn’t very good. Arsenal did OK to get his wages covered.
Pretty sure Guendouzi’s asinine Instagram post after we won the FA Cup let the cat out of the bag. And still we’ve never heard Arteta say a negative word about him (or Ozil) to the press. Has Arteta done something I’ve missed to worsen the situation? If a player is acting petulant in training, you don’t reward him with playing time — especially when he is usually no better than average on the pitch — to trick other clubs into thinking all is well. I’m not surprised teams are meh about MG. They have eyes and can see what’s happening… Read more »
We’ve got plenty of sellable assets pal – just not many that we wish to sell
Arteta has proven he suffers no fools and unluckily for Guendouzi he himself decided to be the fool that Arteta came to use as an example. That said, I hope he seizes this opportunity to get his career back on track. Berlin is a banging town. Good luck to him!
Well said Twatsloch
Mes, get those old trackies on and do some road work! LANS!
My god. What a shit show.
I was saving that for when the window had closed 😉
my comment was more to do with Guendouzi. Only Arsenal could make a saleable asset basically worthless in the space of a few months.
Crazy to think Transfermarkt.com valued him at £45m 9 months ago. Hopefully he’ll have a good season and we can find a buyer willing to pay £10-15m for a prospect with one year left on his contract.
Goes right into the top 10 of dumbest players to have played for Arsenal
confidently put him in the top 3
2M made so far, cool! Torreira (24), Guendouzi (21). future is bright in our midfield. Could also had over 20M for him but his crying was good enough for us and off he goes to Atletico. “Akhaully this a good thing, Arteta something, something”.
The best deals we’v done in long time: Tierney, Gabriel. 20-30M range for transfers. What do we do next? Chase 50M+ big name targets that are insanely difficult to do, this club is a joke.
Could be an interesting 24hrs ahead, I kinda hope so.
Off Topic: I just watched Aouar and Partey on YouTube. I think Arsenal need both of them but if it must be either of them then it must be Aouar reasons being that: We have too many CMs at the moment who pass the ball around to the nearest man and even pass it back to the defence under any form of pressure to keep it simple and safe except Xhaka who can make a long pass every once in a while. Aouar is a Messi like kind of player who’s not afraid to take on his opponents be it… Read more »
You are like the Arsenal Transfer Window…woke up at the last hour to see Aouar and Partey videos on YouTube 24 hours before the window closes! ?
Another bang average player we can’t get rid of because every other team can see how shit they are.
Loan him out then if its the best we can get, i guess we’re stuck with the rest.
2017 squad back for another go at the premiership pmsl – we are an absolute joke club.
If true, what a relief, him and a certain overpaid slacker are two players I’d love to see out of the door at Arsenal
The biggest problem for Arsenal was allowing an American to buy over the club. Knowing the American business model is maximizing profit by all means and finally once there is noting to squee, sell and make hefty profit.
If it was Russian or Arabs, Arsenal would have been like Chelsea or Man City.
Hope and getting the best of Arteta is all we have. Don’t hope too much on the transfer market, it’s all hype by this American. You won’t get a cent from this guy.
Reasonable.
It would be extremely foolish for us to sell him nor are there many takers for a recalcitrant player.
OTOH he is still young and under good contract. PLUS he is a talent regardless and should he mature on loan, we could either cash in with better price OR if he should face reality, we will have a chastened player return to the fold.
…with Elneny not young, Ceballos not confirmed beyond this season, Willock willing but still someways to go, there is room for an imroved (attitude) Guendouzi next summer.
Elneny is same age as xhaka 28 As back up to a 1st choice DM he would be fine. When he plays alongside Xhaka it makes us too defensive. That said our midfield choices moving forward will be xhaka, elneny, ceballos, willock, Maitland-Niles, Saka, Smith-Rowe, Willian, ozil and olayinka. I think 4213 will be the way forward for us, when Pepe came on and willian dropped inside it worked. It could also be a way back in for ozil, but I have this sneaky feeling he will be off to the MLS or the middle East, possibly after the window… Read more »
Looks like a central midfield of Arteta and Edu this season!
Well this has turned out about as badly as it could have. That Villarreal move probably would’ve been best for him after all. We know he would have been played because Emery loves him and that would only have helped retain some value. Hopefully he learns some discipline at Hertha and raises his profile but I’m not sure it’s the right move for him.
Fingers crossed someone stumps up some cash for him of what little value there is left at the end of the season.
Another Lord Bendtner…average talent, thinks he’s amazing, shipped off to a mediocre German club.
No loan fees. It shows that his value is suspect just as many others we want to ship out
Totally unrelated boys and girls butt please help get Gunnersaurus his job back..
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