Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is keen to reunite with his former prodigy Matteo Guendouzi in the January transfer window, Pete O'Rourke has claimed.

What's the word?

The Marseille midfielder was originally brought to the Premier League during Emery's time in charge of Arsenal, and has now been linked with a move to Villa Park.

The 23-year-old has developed into a full France international, and was part of the French squad which reached the World Cup final in Qatar.

Speaking exclusively to Football Fancast, O'Rourke claimed that Emery is interested in a deal which would see Guendouzi return to the Premier League.

"He's done really well for Marseille since joining the club from Arsenal and obviously there are links with Unai Emery from their time together at Arsenal," he stated.

"Emery was a big admirer of the Frenchman and he would like to be reunited with him at Villa Park as well."

More maturity

Although Guendouzi, who has been hailed as "fantastic", did display his talent at times during his spell in North London, he had a number of attitude issues throughout and was ultimately frozen out by Mikel Arteta towards the end of his second season there.

He since embarked on a few loan spells before permanently joining Marseille, where he is really starting to shine, but if he is to return to England there may be a concern about his discipline.

However, given that he thrived under Emery at Arsenal, the Spaniard knows the player well and knows how useful he could be for Villa, and given that he is keen to reunite with him, he may feel that Guendouzi has matured with age in the years since he left England.