Unai Emery was, like the rest of us, genuinely surprised to hear that Matteo Guendouzi was being linked with a £60m move to PSG in the summer just one year after arriving at Arsenal.
Surprise surprise
There’s no doubt that Matteo Guendouzi has been a revelation this season for Arsenal.
Despite still only being a teenager and apparently arriving at the club as ‘one for the future’ he was thrown into the first team immediately upon arrival and hasn’t looked back since.
Gunedouzi started his footballing journey with PSG in 2005 when he was just six-years-old, moving on to Lorient nine years later.
It was from there that Arsenal picked him up last summer for just £7.2m and there is rightly concern that the club could be swayed by such a large and quick profit.
Never fear, the club have no intention of selling him.
“I am surprised,” Emery replied when he was asked about the recent speculation. “I don’t want this.
“His development is like we want. He has a big ambition, big quality. Sometimes we need more quality with him and sometimes we need for him to be more stronger in midfield.
“But his development with us is very important and he’s playing with big consistency and I think he is improving a lot. His quality is very impressive for us.”
Guendouzi has featured in 23 Premier League games for Arsenal, although he has yet to register a goal or assist. He did find the net during one of his seven Europa League outings (v Qarabag), however, and grabbed two assists in three appearances in this season’s EFL Cup (v Brentford and Blackpool).
What are the exact details of this Guendouzi rumour? Click next to read more and to find out what Guendouzi thinks about his first season at Arsenal and how he convinced Emery to give him a chance.
Paris Saint-Germain are scouting Matteo Guendouzi ahead of a potential summer move, according to reports, with Arsenal setting their price at more than eight times what they paid for him.
by Dan Critchlow
The Express write that PSG are ‘keeping tabs’ on their former youth player, who they want to bring back to France. Unai Emery has no interest in letting the 19-year-old go, but Arsenal’s limited summer budget means he’s going to have to cash in somewhere if he wants to make any major signings.
As a result, the Express claim Emery might consider cashing in on Guendouzi if PSG offer around £60m. That’s over eight-and-a-half times the £7m Arsenal signed him for in the summer.
It’s not exactly surprising to see such a meteoric rise in the Frenchman’s transfer value. Still just a teenager, Guendouzi has made 33 appearances across the Premier League, Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup this season, and he’ll almost certainly make another 10 before May. That’s a crazy first year for such a young player.
Whilst Arsenal fans definitely want to see some investment in key areas this summer, they probably wouldn’t be so keen on letting go of such a promising young talent in the process. For now, there are still no rumours of an actual bid or contact between the clubs, so it’s not time to panic about losing him just yet.
Next, Guendouzi: “Let’s be honest, apart from the players here who follow a bit of the French leagues, no one had ever heard of me.”
Matteo Guendouzi has admitted that even he is surprised by how quickly he’s broken into the Arsenal first-team, given nobody knew who he was a year ago.
by Dan Critchlow
Guendouzi is a very rare example of a player going from Ligue 2 to Premier League football without any adaptation period whatsoever. The midfielder was in Arsenal’s starting lineup from the first day of the season, and he’s only briefly left it since then, making 33 appearances in all competitions already.
The player himself says it wasn’t what he expected, because he knew he wasn’t a household name when the transfer was announced.
“Let’s be honest, apart from the players here who follow a bit of the French leagues, no one had ever heard of me,” Guendouzi said (via Standard). “So it was very important for me to show what I was capable of as early as possible. I had a chance during the pre-season tour and I took it. I showed I could be part of this team.”
Even so, the midfielder admits he still didn’t expect to end up as a regular feature of the Arsenal side so soon, and it’s all been a bit of a surprise to him.
“I still didn’t expect to play so much because I know I’m at a top club with great players,” he continued. “I’m a bit surprised that everything has been going so well. I’ve played well when I’ve featured. I think I showed that I could bring something to the team.
“I am very happy with how things have gone for me at the club so far and if I can keep playing as much in the second half of the season, it would be great.”
A key factor in Guendouzi’s success so far is the faith that Emery has shown in him. At first, he could’ve left the midfielder out for being too inexperienced. Then, when the 19-year-old had a bad game or two, he could’ve been dropped to the bench with little hope of a return.
Instead, the Spaniard has stuck by his summer signing all season until now. Guendouzi is well aware of how lucky he is to have a manager who supported him like that.
“I owe him a lot because he has trusted me from the beginning,” the former Lorient man said. “He has a lot of faith in me and it is boosting my confidence. To give so much playing time to a 19-year-old at Arsenal is rare.
“I always want to repay his faith by doing well on the pitch. I have much more to learn with him. We talk a lot, he gives me a lot of advice on my positioning, playing forward. I can feel how much better I am now compared to the start of the season. I know all the teams we face better. I know myself better and my game is stronger.”
Hopefully, the benefits of that progress will be big for Guendouzi and Arsenal. If the midfielder can keep developing for the next few years he could have a long Premier League career, and he’ll quickly become one of the most sought-after young stars in the division.
Next, how Matteo Guendouzi convinced Unai Emery to give him a chance.
Matteo Guendouzi convinced Unai Emery to give him a chance in the team from his very first day with Arsenal, by deciding to join pre-season training over his national team.
by Dan Critchlow
Immediately after Guendouzi signed for Arsenal, he had the chance to join the France u19 squad for the UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Finland. However, the youngster instead made the decision to stay in North London and train with his new club teammates.
Unai Emery explained that this was a boost for the player’s chances in the team.
“The first impression from him is very good,” Emery told Standard Sport. “We saw this from the first weeks of pre-season when he arrived here and started training.
“For example, his very big decision to decide not to play with the national team in the summer because he wanted to stay and work with us to show his capacity in pre-season. He earned the possibility to take minutes in the first XI.”
As a result of his decision, the 19-year-old played a heavy part in Arsenal’s pre-season matches. With Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka playing in the World Cup over the summer, both returned to training fairly late on, meaning Guendouzi was the most prepared for the opening competitive matches and kept his place.
Emery says he’s remained impressed with how the French youngster has done this season.
“His adaptation was very quick. Now his progress is very good. He is very young. We played with Lucas Torreira and Guendouzi as midfielders at Manchester City. He is a very young player, his present is very good but his ambition is to grow a lot with us and become an important Premier League player.”
For a teenager making the transition from Ligue 2 to the Premier League, Guendouzi has had a fantastic first season. He’s already made over 30 appearances in all competitions for Arsenal, and he’s likely to make many more before the summer.
Let’s hope he keeps performing to a high standard and helps Arsenal back to Champions League football to top off his debut campaign.