Arsenal suffer Matteo Guendouzi summer transfer blow

Plans ahead of the summer transfer window rebuild facing Arsenal have suffered another blow as Matteo Guendouzi sustained season-ending metatarsal injury while with Hertha Berlin.

The unprecedented summer facing Arsenal, as Mikel Arteta put it, while rely heavily on selling numerous players to raise funding, a situation that has been made significantly more important by the club losing any financial injection from playing in Europe next season.

Crashing out of the Europa League at the semi-final stage to Villarreal ensured there will be no Champions League football next season, and while it is still mathematically possible for Arsenal to qualify for Europe through their Premier League position, nobody is placing any bets on it at this stage. It won’t happen.

Among those the club are looking to sell are their players currently out on loan. Dinos Mavropanos, Lucas Torreria, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock are all thought to be up for sale, as is Matteo Guendouzi, who was frozen out of the club last season and sent out on loan for 2020/21.

Arsenal suffer Matteo Guendouzi summer transfer blow with midfielder suffering broken metatarsal with Hertha Berlin

With one year left on his deal it is time for Arsenal to move him on, but Hertha Berlin confirmed on their official website that the midfielder suffered a metatarsal fracture, ruling him out of the rest of the season and beyond.

The France Under-21 international came off injured in the first half of the Bundesliga side’s win over Freiburg, with scans confirming the injury.

The usual timeframe for such a fracture varies between six to eight weeks, although in terms of when someone can return to playing the time of absence is usually longer.

The summer transfer window opens on June 9 in just over four weeks and will stay open for 12 weeks after that, so while there will still be plenty of time to find a buyer and move Guendouzi on, it nonetheless does little to help Arsenal’s already worrying case.

Ensuring it’s a swift recovery is of prime importance.

Whoever wants to sign Guendouzi will do so knowing what they’re getting. He’s won over supporters in the German capital with a strong start and end to the season, with it likely the club will explore the chances of signing him permanently from Arsenal despite previous concerns.