Newcastle United are leaving no stone unturned in their search for reinforcements and are now looking at Matteo Guendouzi of Marseille as a potential signing.
Matteo Guendouzi is no stranger to the Premier League having been on the books at Arsenal between 2018 and 2022, although he did have two spells out on loan during that time. One of which was to Marseille in a move that was made permenent.
Now, according to L’Equipe, a return to England could be on the cards for the France international with Newcastle and Aston Villa looking at a £35million deal for the midfielder.
Guendouzi is an extremely talented footballer; you don’t get into a World Cup finalist’s squad if you don’t have talent, but his issue is his attitude. It was a falling out with Mikel Arteta that drove his move to Marseille, and now it seems he’s had a falling out with manager, Igor Tudor there too.
In fact, even when he was on loan at Marseille he was making headlines for the wrong reasons with The Daily Mail reporting that even his teammates were ‘fed up’ with him.
For me this puts a move to Newcastle firmly in the ‘unlikely’ column. One of Eddie Howe‘s key factors when looking at potential signings is a good attitude and work-rate. Granted, he signed Anthony Gordon whose attitude has been called into question several times in the past – and that has even caused issues at Newcastle already.
One player with a fiery attitude is enough I think. We want our players fighting the opposition not his manager or teammates.
Unai Emery was the Arsenal manager who brought Guendouzi to the Premier League back in 2018 and if he is to return to England then I’d back him to join Emery again at Aston Villa. He can be their problem.
Hopefully this is just media speculation and there’s no element of truth behind Newcastle’s interest because as talented as Guendouzi is, he could be more hassle than he’s worth.
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