✍️ OFFICIAL William Saliba (Loan)

[SingmeasongSong]

If they've really sneaked in a pathetic option to buy, supposedly even peanuts, I'm really absolutely done with this club.

It ain't getting more embarassing even if you tried.

 

[Penn_]

No option to buy and letting the player choose the club. Hardly a loan of a player being shunned and unwanted long term.

 

[14Henry]

No option to buy and letting the player choose the club. Hardly a loan of a player being shunned and unwanted long term.

Why not renew his contract if he is wanted long term?

Having a 21 year old with 2 years left on his deal isn't exactly good management. Or is it?

 

[OnlyOne]

People aren't ready for the conversation, but Saliba doesn't get into Newcastle or Palace's defence at the moment. They're aren't going to risk playing a 20-year-old kid who's new to the league and developing him for another club. OM on the other hand know exactly what he'll bring so they'll be confident he gets the minutes.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

People aren't ready for the conversation, but Saliba doesn't get into Newcastle or Palace's defence at the moment. They're aren't going to risk playing a 20-year-old kid who's new to the league and developing him for another club. OM on the other hand know exactly what he'll bring so they'll be confident he gets the minutes.

Yeah good point there. Saliba isn't coming here to sit on the bench on some relegation fighting team. If he isn't playing for Arsenal why would he leave France? People act like he's obliged to join a PL team.

 

[TimoJens]

People aren't ready for the conversation, but Saliba doesn't get into Newcastle or Palace's defence at the moment. They're aren't going to risk playing a 20-year-old kid who's new to the league and developing him for another club. OM on the other hand know exactly what he'll bring so they'll be confident he gets the minutes.

He has played almost 50 games in Ligue 1, more than Gabriel had played when he joined us. This is not some kind of amateur player.

 

[OnlyOne]

Yeah good point there. Saliba isn't coming here to sit on the bench on some relegation fighting team. If he isn't playing for Arsenal why would he leave France? People act like he's obliged to join a PL team.

Yeah exactly, end of the day a team from the PL who want him, likely only need him as another body in case of injuries. Granted he'd get more game time somewhere else but it's not guaranteed, OM he's a starter.

 

[14Henry]

People aren't ready for the conversation, but Saliba doesn't get into Newcastle or Palace's defence at the moment. They're aren't going to risk playing a 20-year-old kid who's new to the league and developing him for another club. OM on the other hand know exactly what he'll bring so they'll be confident he gets the minutes.

So Saliba isn't good enough to play 15-20 games for any Premier league club?

 

[OnlyOne]

He has played almost 50 games in Ligue 1, more than Gabriel had played when he joined us. This is not some kind of amateur player.

What's your point? These teams mentioned have tried and tested first-teamers, they aren't going to bin them to help us develop a player, a French team already know that he can handle that league, look at what he did at Nice and St Etienne, it's way more likely a team like OM would be happy to have him play a ton of minutes because of the impact he'll have.

 

[OnlyOne]

So Saliba isn't good enough to play 15-20 games for any Premier league club?

No one knows if he is, but is it a good idea for us to send him and hope he gets the minutes and adapts quickly because a team like Newcastle might bin him off real quick. Or is it better to send him where we know he'll get a full season?

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Yeah exactly, end of the day a team from the PL who want him, likely only need him as another body in case of injuries. Granted he'd get more game time somewhere else but it's not guaranteed, OM he's a starter.

I do think he wants to play for Arsenal though and it's Arteta stopping him. He's always said he was never really given a chance, it just ended up being a bad mix of a rookie manager who didn't sign him, Covid sh*t, family issues and injuries. But still I think we've got passed all of that now so after this season we should really know what's gonna happen with him, an actual full uninterrupted season of football he hasn't ever had.

 

[14Henry]

No one knows if he is, but is it a good idea for us to send him and hope he gets the minutes and adapts quickly because a team like Newcastle might bin him off real quick. Or is it better to send him where we know he'll get a full season?

So you are super risk averse. Its like saying if you never let the baby try to walk on his own how do you know he can or can't do it?

There comes a point were you have to let him try.....why? Because in life or in football there are no guarantees. If Saliba is a 100% starter every week for Marsielle then that indicates the league is piss poor so he won't develop. These are your words not mine.

You say Palace and Newcastle are too good for Saliba to be a starter. Again those are your words.

So we are sending him to a sub par league and a sub standard team to play 30-35 matches a season instead of challenging him in the most difficult league in the world?

 

[14Henry]

I do think he wants to play for Arsenal though and it's Arteta stopping him. He's always said he was never really given a chance, it just ended up being a bad mix of a rookie manager who didn't sign him, Covid sh*t, family issues and injuries. But still I think we've got passed all of that now so after this season we should really know what's gonna happen with him, an actual full uninterrupted season of football he hasn't ever had.

But what if he gets injured and is out for 3 months? Do we have to send him back a 4th year?

Where does it all end? When is enough games in a **** league enough to say.....test yourself somewhere else?

 

[drippin]

No one knows if he is, but is it a good idea for us to send him and hope he gets the minutes and adapts quickly because a team like Newcastle might bin him off real quick. Or is it better to send him where we know he'll get a full season?

OMG another person talking sense in this ***** panic land.

 

[OnlyOne]

So you are super risk averse. Its like saying if you never let the baby try to walk on his own how do you know he can or can't do it?

There comes a point were you have to let him try.....why? Because in life or in football there are no guarantees. If Saliba is a 100% starter every week for Marsielle then that indicates the league is piss poor so he won't develop. These are your words not mine.

You say Palace and Newcastle are too good for Saliba to be a starter. Again those are your words.

So we are sending him to a sub par league and a sub standard team to play 30-35 matches a season instead of challenging him in the most difficult league in the world?

Saliba is 20, what we want him to get is game time because we've ****ed him around last season. If Saliba has a long term future at this club then there will be plenty of time for him to adapt to the PL, so instead of sending him right now to a club where game time isn't guaranteed, we're sending him to one, well he's chosen a club where he's likely been told he'll get the minutes.

Ideal scenario is he stays in the PL and is a teams CB straightaway but that won't happen.

 

[14Henry]

Saliba is 20, what we want him to get is game time because we've ****ed him around last season. If Saliba has a long term future at this club then there will be plenty of time for him to adapt to the PL, so instead of sending him right now to a club where game time isn't guaranteed, we're sending him to one, well he's chosen a club where he's likely been told he'll get the minutes.

Ideal scenario is he stays in the PL and is a teams CB straightaway but that won't happen.

But at 18/19/20 he has proven himself in the French league. He would start for basically every team bar PSG. Jose Fonte is playing at Lille at about 37. I dare say Saliba would get ahead of him.

It's all about development and pushing the boundaries to develop more and more each year.

You may think that playing 30-35 matches in your comfort zone is good for developing a player to play in England but I don't.

Staying in England playing 15-18 games, learning the language, the nature or the league, adjusting personally to new surrounding etc provids much more in the way of development.

A top coach pushes a player to see what he isn't capable of. Not what he is.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Clearly we don't think Saliba has developed enough to warrant serious game time here, and we know there's no point keeping him around as a backup because he needs to play in order to help his development. Whether these assessments are accurate is another thing but to me it's probably a case of Arteta/Edu feeling that we cannot afford to be developing a player in our defence, we need more ready-made CB's who're at the level we want. Hence why we're going for someone like White who's PL proven and is ready to slot right in.

Some would argue that at this stage Gabriel is a bit off being fully developed but clearly the view is he's a lot more suited to the league and how we're trying to play at this moment. Going into this season with Gabriel-Saliba like many suggested is simply too risky.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Don't get me wrong none of this necessarily guarantees Saliba definitely has a future here, he himself might get fed up and force a move to a team that he's going to be playing regularly for. We might even take a loss on him. But one thing is for sure the current assessment of him is that he's simply not ready, especially playing alongside someone like Gabriel who he himself probably still has a bit to go and maybe hasn't fully adapted to the league either. At least if he's alongside someone like White it might be a lot more beneficial.

 

[14Henry]

Don't get me wrong none of this necessarily guarantees Saliba definitely has a future here, he himself might get fed up and force a move to a team that he's going to be playing regularly for. We might even take a loss on him. But one thing is for sure the current assessment of him is that he's simply not ready, especially playing alongside someone like Gabriel who he himself probably still has a bit to go and maybe hasn't fully adapted to the league either. At least if he's alongside someone like White it might be a lot more beneficial.

This is what annoys me. Those who agree with sending Saliba to Marsielle seem to be completely ignoring what those who oppose it are saying. Deliberately missing out a reasonable part to make their opinion more credible.

Do I think Saliba is ready to play 38 PL games for Arsenal during arguably our worst ever period in the clubs history (in my lifetime). NO.

Do I think he should stay at Arsenal this season and play 5 games? NO.

What I do believe is we know his capabilities in France. When you are comfortable somewhere and are given guarantees regarding team selection you don't develop as much.

Did Guardiola tell Foden he will play every week? No. When Dortmund signed Bellingham was he guaranteed 35 games? No. They had to play their way into the team.

Now I think any logical thinking fan who wants the best version of Saliba for Arsenal whether that be in 1 or 2 years is to loan him somewhere in the PL.

There are no guarantees. But you find a coach who wants to work with him, who will guarantee him 10-15 games and maybe more if Saliba himself adapts well to the league, country, language and playing style here.

If the manager wants to use Saliba in the next 1 or maybe 2 years the logical thing to do is search for a loan in the league. In the country. If the manager has no plans for Saliba then you send the boy wherever he wants to go to decrease any tension or problems.

Anyway I'm done over this Saliba debate. The deal with Marsielle is done so time to lock the thread. It's just stupid now. Signing a player for 30m and not having a proper plan for the lad is absolutely criminal. Like Joel Campbell loaning him around half the world never to be seen again.

 

[Ceballinhos]

Saliba doesn't have a future here, as long as Mikel is the coach. His actions made it clear that he's not counting on him, at all. He's not even trying to develop him for the future.
He started Mustafi ahead of him last year for cup games, even though he knew at the time he wanted to get rid of the german CB. So he played a guy who had no future for us ahead of Saliba, what do you make out of it?

And then it looks like we're sending him on loan again, it's the beginning of July, Saliba hasn't even started to train with the team. Arteta didn't even give him the chance to impress him in pre season.
If at least he gave him his chance during pre season, to assess a bit where Saliba is, if he's ready or not, and then decide at the end of the summer that he's still too raw to bring a contribution and send him out on loan, yeah, it makes more sense.
But sending him out on loan like this means you're not counting on the player at all.

And finally there's the fact we're pursuing a 23 yrs old right CB who's valued in excess of £50M.

We managed to make out the worst of a good situation, once again.