At Arsenal between 2011 and 2018, Stephy Mavididi appeared to be one of the select few who could make it at the Emirates.
Loaned to Preston and Charlton to get some game time under his belt, the player returned from the latter with hope of making it to the Gunners first-team.
However, what followed was a transfer to Juventus’ U23s, where he stayed until 2020, when Montpellier in France paid close to £6m for his services after being impressed by Mavididi’s loan to Dijon during the 2019-20 campaign.
Since then, he’s become a regular first team member for the Ligue 1 side, scoring nine goals in 35 league appearances last season.
He said: “After my loan at Charlton, I needed to talk to the Arsenal board to understand my situation and find out what they wanted to do with me. They said they appreciated me, that I was a good player but that they were looking for two or three world class players at my position, that it would be hard for me to be in the first-team and that they were open to a sale in case of a good offer for everyone.
“It was Juventus. I’ll never forget my experience over there. Everything is there for you to the smallest detail. After training, you go to eat at the restaurant, they ask you want you want to eat. If you have two training sessions that day, you can sleep there… Everything is just perfect. It’s a great experience”.
During his time at Arsenal, Mavididi failed to make a single appearance for the first team, although he did make it on the bench a couple of times during an EFL Cup run in the 2015-16 season.
