Arsenal are set to receive a transfer windfall as former midfielder Matteo Guendouzi prepares to join Aston Villa from Marseille.
Having received his first call-up to the France international side last season, the midfielder has gone from strength to strength and made his France international debut in 2021 as he appeared for Les Bleus in a World Cup qualifier against Finland. The 23-year-old then revelled in fulfilling his "dream" of scoring for the international side against South Africa in March last year.
The player earned high praise from his previous Marseille boss Jorge Sampaoli last season as the Argentine boss claimed that the midfielder was a "natural leader" in his side. That led to the Ligue 1 club making his loan deal a permanent one last summer.
Guendouzi has once again thrived this campaign under new boss Igor Tudor but looks set to exit the French club this month for Villa to be reunited with Unai Emery, under whom he had a strong working relationship during their time together at the Gunners.
Arsenal are thought to have included a 15 per cent sell-on clause in the midfielder's deal following his switch to Marseille, meaning they could net over £5million from the Frenchman’s move to Villa Park – which is thought to be on the cards in the region of £35m.
Speaking to RMC Sport last year, Guendouzi had no regrets about leaving Arsenal: "It was a carefully considered choice. There were very good discussions with the president, with the coach and with people in my family. We really made the best decision altogether. For me, it's the best choice I've made in many years.
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"President Longoria and coach Sampaoli are the people who introduced me to the project and made me want to come. We talked about Marseille's project, what I could bring to the team, and how I was going to grow.
"I found myself in this speech, I knew that when I came here, I was going to cross levels and continue to grow, whether it was humanly or football-wise."
The 23-year-old actually opened up on his relationship with current Arsenal boss Arteta in a recent interview, where he admitted: "It's true that I didn't have the best relationship with him. Beyond that, I always tried to work, and always gave the maximum of myself in training and in matches.
"I still play a few matches with him, I still did great performances. He preferred other players and I respect that decision. That's why, afterwards, I also decided to leave because I was still young, I needed playing time to continue to progress. The most important when you're young is to play."
Having joined Arsenal as a teenager as a relatively unknown talent from Lorient – then in France's second division – Guendouzi's rise to prominence in North London was notable. Across 18 months, he was a regular under Emery and then Arteta – with his transfer valuation multiple times the £9m which the club would agree to receive not so long later.
Having been at the centre of the Gunners' midfield for a season-and-a-half, Guendouzi's last game for the club was against Brighton in June 2020. The Seagulls won that match late on in an ill-tempered affair, with Neal Maupay's collision with Gunners goalkeeper Bernd Leno ruling the German out for the rest of the campaign.
Tensions were running high and at the end of the game, with Guendouzi briefly grabbing Maupay by the throat, but referee Martin Atkinson took no action and there was no subsequent punishment – with the midfielder not playing for Arsenal again.
Guendouzi had made 82 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions and had looked set to star for them over many years. But that trip to Brighton was his last outing for the club. The midfielder, who joined Arsenal from Lorient in 2018, spent last season out on loan at Hertha Berlin, making 24 appearances and scoring two goals before injury cut his campaign short.
