Aston Villa are reportedly set to miss out on the signing of Olympique Marseille midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, with the Ligue 1 maestro set to remain in France until the end of the season.
According to Telefoot journalist Saber Desfarges, there is ‘no chance’ that Guendouzi will leave Marseille in the final days of the January transfer window despite some strong interest from Villa, with 90min claiming that a €50m (£44m) move was potentially in the pipeline from Unai Emery’s side.
However, it now looks like Guendouzi will remain with Marseille despite the potential chance to reunite with former Arsenal manager Emery in the Premier League, with the Spanish coach the man who brought the Frenchman to England and who arguably kick-started the midfielder’s career.
With Emery now back in the Premier League and Guendouzi a more mature player, a reunion makes sense on paper at Villa. However, Marseille are now set to keep hold of their star midfielder until the summer window, a prospect that will be quite exciting for supporters of the French club.
Indeed, Marseille have spent well this January in Ruslan Malinovskyi and Azzedine Ounahi, and keeping Guendouzi gives the Ligue 1 giants a midfield trio that has the potential to be one of the best in Europe, much to the dismay of Villa, who looked like they had a real shot at signing the Frenchman.
Villa could miss out on Guendouzi signing in the summer to a bigger club
Guendouzi’s stock has risen a lot since the midfielder’s move to Marseille last summer, and with Villa in the best position possible to sign the 23-year-old, missing out on the France international now might mean losing out on him entirely in the summer.
As we know, Guendouzi has again been in great form for Marseille this season, and with many top sides interested in a young midfielder, the former Arsenal star could easily win a move to a bigger club in the summer, even with Villa having a manager as big as Emery at the helm.
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