A player Arsenal sold has now received some serious criticism from former Belgium midfielder Radja Nainggolan.
The Gunners have had a number of top-quality players over the years.
Some of them became stars at the Emirates, while others either chose to leave or were pushed out of the club for one reason or another.
One of those ex-Arsenal players has really angered Nainggolan recently, and the former Roma and Inter Milan midfielder has had a real go at him.
Radja Nainggolan tears into former Arsenal star Matteo Guendouzi
Matteo Guendouzi‘s time at Arsenal was really interesting, wasn’t it?
The Gunners signed the Frenchman from Lorient for £7 million in the summer of 2018, and he became a huge hit under Unai Emery at the club.
Guendouzi had a phenomenal debut season and earned plenty of praise. Everybody expected him to become the main man in Arsenal’s midfield for many, many years.
However, disciplinary issues saw him pushed out of the team by Mikel Arteta, and once that happened, the writing was on the wall for him.
After two loan spells, Guendouzi was sold to Marseille in 2022, and he has since joined Lazio in the Italian Serie A.
The midfielder started for the Biancocelesti against AS Roma in the Derby della Capitale last week and ended up on the losing side.
Radja Nainggolan, who played over 200 games for Roma back in the day, was absolutely furious with Guendouzi and went as far as calling him an ‘idiot’.
He said on the Controcalcio stream on Twitch, as translated by Roma Press: “Guendouzi is good for nothing. He only knows how to run. He is an idiot.
“Lazio gave away Milinkovic and replaced him with Guendouzi… What’s the point of having him? He’s not a quality player and he shouldn’t even be in a team of Lazio’s calibre.”
“In his place I would easily take Duncan from Fiorentina. Guendouzi is not a strong player, he’s average – I can name at least twelve other players better than him in Serie A.”
“Tell me how many times he’s scored, how many shots he takes… he doesn’t have any qualities, he only knows how to break up the play.”
What really happened between Arsenal and Matteo Guendouzi
Matteo Guendouzi really had the potential to become a superstar at Arsenal.
The Frenchman came to the Premier League as a teenager and outclassed many other midfielders who had been in England for years.
He was absolutely superb, but two incidents ruined everything.
The first occurred during a warm-weather training camp in Dubai. Guendouzi did something there that really upset Mikel Arteta, but he was forgiven at the time.
Then, in a famous game against Brighton and Hove Albion, Guendouzi got into an altercation with Neal Maupay, and Arteta had enough then.
Guendouzi didn’t play a single game for Arsenal after that, which is such a shame as he could’ve become a great player under Arteta.