Emery has big plans as French teenager seals £7m Arsenal move

Unai Emery believes his latest Arsenal signing Matteo Guendouzi will have an important role to play this season after he sealed a £7million switch to north London.

The France youth international becomes the fifth signing of the Emery era at Emirates Stadium, joining Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno, Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Lucas Torreira in a new-look Arsenal squad.

The 19-year-old will wear the No. 29 shirt at Arsenal, and has signed what is described as a long-term deal at the club after arriving from Ligue 1 Lorient.

And Emery insists the midfielder will be a part of the first team squad in the upcoming season.

“We are delighted Matteo is joining us,” he told the club’s official website.

“He is a talented young player and a lot of clubs were interested in him. He has big potential and gained good first-team experience last season with Lorient.

“He wants to learn and improve and will be an important part of our first-team squad.”

The player himself claims he’s fulfilling a lifetime ambition joining the Gunners.

“Arsenal have always been the team closest to my heart and a side I’ve wanted to join since I was a child,” he said.

“It gives me great pride – it’s incredible – and I hope I can do great things here.

 

“It doesn’t get any better than coming to a club like this, with so much history, like Arsenal. I’m hugely proud.”

He added: “My hope is to become a top player here at Arsenal. A lot of great players have played here. I want to become part of the club’s history and to achieve great things.

“I want to win titles, titles, titles. Winning silverware, as I said, is very important to me and winning things here at Arsenal would be incredible.”

As well as bringing in five new signings, Arsenal also extended the contracts of Calum Chambers, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Granit Xhaka in recent weeks, while Mohamed Elneny has also agreed to fresh terms since Arsene Wenger stepped aside at the end of last season.

Santi Cazorla and Jack Wilshere, who this week joined West Ham, were both released.

Emery will take charge of his first game since replacing Wenger when an Arsenal XI faces Boreham Wood in a pre-season friendly on Saturday.

 

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