Matteo Guendouzi is clearly enjoying himself since leaving Arsenal.
The France international hasn’t kicked a ball under Mikel Arteta since the summer of 2020 after falling out with the Spanish coach in North London.
That resulted in a number of loan spells away from Arsenal, before he sealed a £9 million permanent transfer to Marseille this past summer [Eurosport].
Guendouzi has established himself as one of the Ligue 1 outfit’s most important players and Juninho Pernambucano, a former sporting director at Lyon, has revealed that he was interested in signing the former Lorient midfielder, admitting that he’s actually much better than he realised.
He told RMC Sport: “Guendouzi is better than I thought, because when I was director of football at OL, I had discussions about him with Edu when he was at Arsenal. I had a few doubts, but today, I would say he’s a midfielder… not complete, because he isn’t always going to score goals, but he does formidable work as a box to box.
“He loses the ball rarely. He works hard without the ball, leads by example. He’s a very important player. He didn’t play at the weekend and the team lost.”
Guendouzi’s talent was never in question.
His first season at Arsenal under Unai Emery was an exceptional one, but there was obvious discipline issues and ones that Arteta refused to tolerate, hence his departure.
The North Londoners might one day regret selling him for only £9 million, because he could be worth an absolute fortune in the near future.
But for now, Arteta’s side are top of the Premier League and honestly, Guendouzi wouldn’t get his game.
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