Arsenal star William Saliba admitted in 2019 that another star helped convince him to make the move to the Emirates Stadium.
The centre-back made the £27million switch to the Gunners as a promising young defender from Saint-Etienne, hopeful of living up to the potential he had shown.
After several loan spells, William Saliba returned to stake his place in the Arsenal squad, becoming a key player for Mikel Arteta.
In the years since the Frenchman has joined, the squad has seen plenty of changes made as players have come and gone.
However, without one of those who was banished by the Arsenal boss, perhaps Saliba wouldn’t have joined at all.
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William Saliba spoke with Matteo Guendouzi before Arsenal transfer
While a project and a club can do all of the talking for selling a player on a transfer switch, so too can other stars.
That appears to be what Matteo Guendouzi did in 2019 to help get Saliba to join Arsenal over any other team.
Speaking to the Arsenal official website in 2019, Saliba said: “I spoke to Matteo [Guendouzi].
“I even bumped into him at a funfair in Paris, and that’s where I told him that Arsenal wanted to sign me! He gently advised me to come here and explained what it was like.”
In the end, it may have been a tipping point that helped convince Saliba to make the move to Arsenal that summer.
All these years on, it’s a move that has worked out, with the £27million fee appearing an absolute bargain for one of the best defenders in the world.
Mikel Arteta taking his side to Premier League title challengers can be partially credited to the introduction of Saliba to the backline.
As a result, he can be thankful to Guendouzi for his part in it, despite what happened between the pair the following year.
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Why Mikel Arteta banished Matteo Guendouzi from Arsenal
Matteo Guendouzi’s time at Arsenal truly came to an end in 2020 when he kicked off two loan spells before he left permanently in 2022 on a permanent deal to Marseille.
The midfielder had plenty of promise, but there were question marks over a few areas to his game.
Problems followed in June 2020 when Guendouzi got into a physical altercation with Brighton striker Neal Maupay.
The Frenchman was then banished from training until he left the squad, though he would later insist it wasn’t the only reason he left.
He told beIN Sports: “Journalists used this excuse to say that we had a bad relationship and that’s why I stopped playing and left Arsenal.
“Not at all. It’s a gesture like many on the pitch. There’s a lot of tension sometimes, a lot of problems on the pitch. In any case, it has nothing to do with all that.”
However, he did go on to claim that his relationship with Arteta wasn’t the best, adding: “It’s true that I didn’t have the best relationship with him.
“Beyond that, I always tried to work, always gave the maximum of myself in training and in matches. I still play a few matches with him, I still did great performances.
“He preferred other players and I respect that decision. That’s why, afterwards, I also decided to leave because I was still young, I needed playing time to continue to progress. The most important when you’re young is to play.”
While his time at Arsenal came in sour circumstances, he certainly had an impact.
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