Matteo Guendouzi: Arsenal sign France Under-20 international midfielder

Last updated on 11 July 2018.From the section Arsenal96

Arsenal have signed France Under-20 international Matteo Guendouzi from Lorient for an undisclosed fee.

The 19-year-old, who started his career in Paris St-Germain's academy, joined Ligue 2 side Lorient in 2014 and made his first-team debut aged 17 in 2016.

Guendouzi is Unai Emery's fifth signing as Arsenal manager following Lucas Torreira's arrival on Tuesday.

"I want to become part of the club's history and to achieve great things here," said midfielder Guendouzi.

"Arsenal have always been the team closest to my heart and a side I've wanted to join since I was a child."

Guendouzi made 30 appearances for Lorient during his time at the club and will wear the number 29 shirt at Arsenal.

The Gunners have also brought in goalkeeper Bernd Leno from Bayer Leverkusen, defender Stephan Lichtsteiner from Juventus and defender Sokratis Papastathopoulos from Borussia Dortmund.

"[Guendouzi] has big potential and gained good first team experience last season with Lorient," said Emery.

"He wants to learn and improve and will be an important part of our first-team squad."

Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.

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96 comments

Comment posted by U17007976, at 11:33 11 Jul 2018
Five players signed already and it's not even the middle of July. If Wenger was still in charge we'd have bought nobody and he'd be saying "Nothing gets done during a World Cup" or "There is little movement in the market until the end of August" etc. It's amazing what can be achieved when you actually have a plan - I am loving this new regime already.
Comment posted by AGP, at 12:12 11 Jul 2018
It's worth pointing out Arsenal are also signing Sam Greenwood from Sunderland, and have many promising English youngsters already at the club.
Comment posted by Storeys Pen, at 12:11 11 Jul 2018
@13 kafka12

Arsenal have signed and nurtured many English players. Walcott, Chamberlin, Wilshere, Jenkinson, Akpom , Maitland-Niles, etc.... A lot of others were developed and sold to Championship clubs.

If you watched Europa League and League cup games you would have seen the likes of Eddie Nketiah, Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, Ben Sheaf and Matt Macey all playing for the first team.
Comment posted by Missinginstereo, at 13:33 11 Jul 2018
Arsenal are lining up to be the most fascinating club at the start of the season. They bought a defensive mid who has kante levels of energy and a world class keeper, an older rb to help bellerin and a pretty decent CB. They have plenty of young talent and 2 very good attackers. This team has boom or bust written all over it.
Comment posted by Scots Aye, at 11:54 11 Jul 2018
give it a few years kafka12, there are many excellent prospects in the arsenal team, ainsley maitland-niles, eddie nketiah, rob holding - to name a few
Comment posted by gooner 162, at 15:25 11 Jul 2018
Arsenal might be a little broken atm but even when we’re struggling we still win trophies. 3 fa cups in 5 years. When spurs win a trophy then come back and comment. You’ll always be 2nd best in north London
Comment posted by Senna and Arsenal, at 12:25 11 Jul 2018
I take it Spuds made no signings as all their fans seem to be obsessed with what Arsenal are doing! Sad people really.
Comment posted by boyler, at 18:27 11 Jul 2018
Some comments have asked why do arsenal only sign foreign players well it’s simple, good young French player capped at U17 and U20 only €8m. The same english player would easily be double if not triple the price.

Top class midfielder from Sampdoria who has a great World Cup costs only €26m. The same type of english player excelling in the World Cup would cost double.

SO WHY BUY ENGLISH
Comment posted by U15787880, at 12:42 11 Jul 2018
18. Posted by 1882 Loyal Spurs

And Spurs are owned by a company based in the tax haven of the bahamas.
Comment posted by U16785726, at 22:23 11 Jul 2018
@ Greaves. hahahahaha. How many winners medals will Harry "the semifinal choker " Kane come home with? 5 bottleham mugs in or around the first team 11 for England and they choked in a semi final,against an average side .
What a surprise... Not...
Comment posted by Emile Heskey for England Captain, at 11:48 11 Jul 2018
@8.
"the English talent is simply not there at the moment, cant just play them for the sake of it."

Absolute rubbish. There's so much talent! We as a country are investing so much money into grass roots football and you can tell it's starting to pay off - but we just all need the "big" clubs to start investing into it as well.
Comment posted by U15787880, at 17:21 11 Jul 2018
74. Posted by Taxi for Ozil

Every club has their share of idiots and fools, some even think Ozil is a bad player :)
Comment posted by BigoldA, at 12:10 11 Jul 2018
Wenger wanted to buy Mbappe last summer. We can all see now why.
Comment posted by hunkydory, at 17:32 11 Jul 2018
Greaves
Still banging on about your bitter Arsenal/ Spurs rivalry during the World Cup, most sensible true England fans will be cheering our National team for a place in the final. If Kane scores a hat trick I’ll be chuffed to bits for him, if Wellbeck comes on scores the winner no doubt you will be gutted. Grow up you weasel your folks must be so proud of what they produced
Comment posted by Running Dog Revisionist, at 18:35 11 Jul 2018
Good luck to Matteo Guendouzi. As a Gunners fan, I wish him every success.

I also wish every single England player out there all the best for tonight... no matter WHO they play for back home.
Comment posted by mac_abre, at 13:29 11 Jul 2018
@35 that is exceptionally poor and weak minded revisionism - just because Spurs have more players in the England team. It was a foreign manager who trained them with his own latin coaching team, with 19 of 25 non English players.

As for all the assumptions - i put that down to anglo world cup hubris.

To claim Spurs are more English is either ignorant of intentionally misleading.
Comment posted by Hooray, at 17:03 11 Jul 2018
37.christno2

"Watch all the Spurs players bottle it tonight! Then it'll just show you why they can 3rd in a 2 horse PL race!"

What a pathetic comment to make. I really hope you're not a fellow Arsenal supporter.
Comment posted by gentlefemo, at 15:58 11 Jul 2018
5 signings already in July! This shows focus & purpose! I'm waiting and looking out for what Phil McNulty and other BBC pundits think of this team. Fingers crossed on who will have to be dropped because the team needs some trimming too...
I'm beginning to Like Unai... wish you lads the best in this season.
Comment posted by JasS2016, at 15:23 11 Jul 2018
5 signings already!
Comment posted by ohound52, at 14:24 11 Jul 2018
Must admit some really good comments from mac_abre and missinginstereo. Spot on . We have to take risks and The new manager has bought well with a limited budget. Hope we have a good season. It's weird how spurs fans are all over this hoping it won't work out. I'm just glad we are showing some purpose. It sets the mood for the season.