There may have been the occasional rumbling about a clean slate and second chances for Matteo Guendouzi at Arsenal, but it’s become clear that Mikel Arteta wanted him out the door after the incident against Brighton last year.
A loan spell at Hertha Berlin was supposed to put him in the shop window but it didn’t go completely to plan, while he’s also injured so that could make it harder to offload him.
In the ideal world someone would come in and pay a decent-sized fee to take him away, but it looks like Arsenal may need to compromise and accept some kind of loan deal instead:
Marseille President Longoria seeking to find an agreement with Arsenal for Mattéo Guendouzi in the next week – the Gunners are still asking for €20m, OM still pushing for loan with quasi-obligatory option to buy, according to La Provence.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) June 23, 2021
The contract situation is also messy as it’s suggested that he would be a free agent next year so that does make a loan move more difficult, but reports say Arsenal have an option to extend his deal by 12 months to ensure they do collect a fee.
The risk with that would be that they may end up with another year of having a player they don’t want on the books, so any loan move would need to have an obligation to buy rather than an option.
HIs departure may be a frustrating one for the fans as he would certainly have a role in the team next season under normal circumstances, but if he’s not going to get a chance then it does make sense to cash in and move on.