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Mikel Arteta wants to sell Matteo Guendouzi.
The 21 year old midfielder is regarded as a star of the future, but the Spaniard is reported to have become increasingly frustrated with his attitude.
Before the lockdown he left him out of his starting line-up on several occasions because of his lack of application in training.
And then last weekend, he made headlines for the wrong reasons. He is alleged to have taunted Brighton players throughout the match with how much he earned compared to them, and, at the final whistle, grabbed Neil Maupay, the man who scored the winner, by the neck.
That was in protest against the Frenchman’s earlier challenge on Bernd Leno which has ended the goalkeeper’s season, but Arteta and Arsenal fans were not impressed, wondering why Guendouzi did not protest at the time that the challenge occurred.
And then Guendouzi was left out of the squad altogether for the trip to Southampton on Thursday night, with the manager initially insisting that it was for the purposes of squad rotation, and later hinting an internal matter involving the player.
Andy is an exiled English football fan living in Cyprus. He loves all sports but football is his abiding passion, and he still has dreams every now and then about scoring the winning goal in a Wembley Cup Final, even though his playing days are long gone. He follows most major leagues, across Europe at least, and has a favoured team in each. When he’s not watching, listening, reading or downloading podcasts about football, he spend his time worrying about his beloved Arsenal.