Journalist Daniel Taylor has been talking about Matteo Guendouzi and recently revealed some details about the midfielder’s situation at Arsenal.
Taylor was a guest on the latest episode of ‘The Totally Football Show’ podcast and revealed that the Frenchman could indeed leave the club and that Guendouzi has ‘burnt some bridges’ at the north London club already.
The midfielder didn’t feature in the club’s FA Cup win over Sheffield United recently and wasn’t in the squad when the Gunners beat Southampton 2-0 in the Premier League following the club’s match at Brighton which saw the Gunners collapse to a late defeat and the youngster escape a ban after clashing with the Seagulls’ Neal Maupay.
Taylor found Guendouzi’s absence striking, commenting on the player and what the future holds for him.
He said: “This new age of nine substitutions on the bench and five available really lays bare those players who have been left out, and Matteo Guendouzi was left out of the matchday squad for the second game in a row in two competitions now. With all respect to Zech Medley and Matt Smith, who made the bench, Guendouzi would consider himself above them in the pecking order and clearly suggests that Mikel Arteta has probably lost patience with him.
Is there any hope of Guendouzi staying at Arsenal?
No, he's surely leaving
Yes, he'll stay
“He seems to have brought Granit Xhaka back into the fold, but it looks like Guendouzi has burned some bridges at Arsenal. It wouldn’t be a huge surprise to see him sold in the summer if they could get a decent fee. I think that tempestuousness is just a little bit too much. It doesn’t really fit what Arteta wants to see on the pitch and you know, they played Granit Xhaka in front of the three-man defence, which meant they could have two energetic midfielders in Bukayo Saka and Joe Willock going box to box and that isn’t really Guendouzi’s game.”
Taylor went on to talk about how the signs aren’t positive for Guendouzi and that he might be on his way out of the club soon enough.
“You worry from him now because as I say, Dani Ceballos scored the goal – he’s another option there. It’s hard to see pretty quickly how Guendouzi comes back into the fold because we all were told that Arteta would use this period to basically get his squad ready for next season, get his plan ready. And at the moment, Guendouzi doesn’t look to be part of that plan.”
TIF Thoughts…
The fact that Guendouzi hasn’t been playing is a bad sign for his future at the club. And the fact that he’s been linked with a move away from the club already shows that there might be something going on behind the scenes.
While the midfielder didn’t get banned by the FA for his recent skirmish, it was reported that Guendouzi had ‘tastelessly’ taunted Brighton players over money during the Gunners’ defeat at the Amex Stadium. All this doesn’t good look on the youngster and could be a reason for why Arteta has dropped him from his starting eleven.
He is currently valued at £36.45 million by Transfermarkt, and would surely represent a good enough price for Arsenal to get a replacement from if the Frenchman was to leave.