Aston Villa reportedly remain interested in Marseille’s Matteo Guendouzi and they hope to recruit the ex-Arsenal man before next week’s transfer deadline.
The 23-year-old was a regular for Arsenal for two seasons between 2018 and 2020. His attitude issues proved to be his downfall at the Emirates as he was sent out on loan in October 2020.
Marseille signed Guendouzi permanently last year for a fee of around £9m and the midfielder has managed to rebuild his career in Ligue 1. He has grabbed nine goals and 18 assists in 81 appearances for the French side.
Guendouzi arguably played his best football at Arsenal during Unai Emery’s spell in charge and he is now the manager of Aston Villa.
Emery has enjoyed a positive start at Villa Park as he has five wins, one draw and three defeats in nine games. So far this month, the club’s hierarchy have spent around £26m to sign Jhon Durun and Alex Moreno.
Now Football Insider are reporting that Guendouzi is one of Aston Villa’s ‘top targets’ this month. They are now ‘ready to pounce and seal a last-gasp deal’.
The Villans are understood to have ‘held talks with Marseille over a transfer for a player ‘who is valued around the £30m mark’.
A swap deal is reportedly an option with Morgan Samson being mentioned in talks for Guendouzi.
Marseille are said to be willing to ‘green light’ a sale and Aston Villa are ‘hopeful’ that a deal can be finalised before the transfer window ends next Tuesday.
Guendouzi himself is ‘keen’ on the move so he can return to the Premier League and reunite with his former manager.
Earlier this month, Emery indicated that he wanted to “add more players” to his squad.
“At the moment we are speaking about some players that are getting ready to leave and then if we have some space to add some players to improve the squad, taking the balance in the squad, we are going to do it,” Emery said.
“But only if they are going to add some different quality in the squad, but if not… At the moment we have very good players and we are happy with the players that we have, but of course, we want to add more players, maybe this transfer or maybe in the summer.”
On signing Duran, he has added: “He has potential as a striker if he can develop like we are thinking he will do.
“We can’t give him the responsibility, as a 19-year-old, to play as a striker in the Premier League against the best teams in the world.
“I want to help him firstly with his…
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