Arsenal loanee Matteo Guendouzi urges William Saliba to remain at OM
Arsenal midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, currently on loan at Olympique de Marseille, is convinced his teammate and fellow loanee William Saliba will return to the French club on a permanent deal.
Both Saliba and Guendouzi haven’t made much of an impression with Arsenal, with the former yet to make a senior appearance for the club.
Guendouzi himself is set to make his deal with Marseille permanent, following an altercation with Mikel Arteta back in 2020 that saw him frozen out of the setup and eventually loaned to Hertha Berlin.
The French midfielder has indeed enjoyed his time with Marseille, having netted five goals for them – more than he has for all the other clubs he has plied his trade for, combined. The fans quickly took to his aggressive and potent style of play at midfield, ahead of what is to be a long shared journey.
Saliba on the other hand, remains one of the most technically gifted centre-halves in Europe. Despite that fact, the 21-year-old hasn’t yet been recalled by his parent club.
He made a whopping 52 appearances for Marseille, and there’s a chance the player might want to settle in France as Arsenal continue to leave him on loan.
Guendouzi feels Saliba’s heart is at Marseille, although he will return to Arsenal for pre-season. He told reporters “William has Marseille now in his heart, and I’m sure he will return to Marseille next season. So I will try to push him again to stay with us.”
The Ligue 1 Player of The Year has two years left on his current Arsenal deal. Earlier, he had stated that he wants to prove himself to the Gunners faithful, remarking “I belong to Arsenal, and I still have two years there. I will be there for pre-season with Arsenal. I have played zero matches with Arsenal and I want to show them what I’m made of and have the chance to play for the supporters and for this big club. That depends only on me. In any case, leaving [Arsenal] like that would be a shame.”
Ultimately, it will come down to Arteta’s assessment of the player, and the level of importance he has within the Arsenal squad which determines his future in Europe.
-Akarshak Roy
Twitter: @RoyAkarshak
Photo: Chensiyuan. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.