✍️ OFFICIAL William Saliba (Loan)

[Sebastes]

I’d leave to see an honest poll about how many have seen 20+ games of his. There’s a very weird fixation on him.

Hes clearly one of the top centre backs in the French league. Would Holding, Chambers, Mari be the same there? Maybe yes, maybe no. But we have invested the guts of 30m for nothing by the looks of things.

I have definitely seen less than 20 full games, somewhere 8-10 over the last two seasons and then watched highlight vids of individual matches from time to time.

It's ofc hard to say about Holding, Chambers and Mari, but given the quality of some of the best center backs in that league I reckon they would fall short. Fofana is better than all three imo (albeit still more mistake prone) and he wasn't one of the top CB's of Ligue 1. Safe to say he's developed a lot at Leiceister though

Based on what I've seen, coupled with stats there's just nothing that says you don't give him a real chance to cement a starting place. Then on top of that there's the fact that he's a fairly big investment as well as the message we're sending to young, promising players. We're flogging off Guendouzi (probably the right choice and reasonable though), ESR didn't get a look in until there was pretty much no one left to play and most of us (all?) was crying out for more minutes for Martinelli.

If he isn't in the squad and doesn't get chances early on, then there's 100% some falling out or something like that on Arteta's part.

 

[dka1]

Saliba has spoken out about Arteta and the club. We all know thats a no go under the "non negotiables". Saliba won't play for Arsenal while Arteta is here. He's rubbed him up the wrong way and that is that.

Hes clearly one of the top centre backs in the French league. Would Holding, Chambers, Mari be the same there? Maybe yes, maybe no. But we have invested the guts of 30m for nothing by the looks of things.

What would Salibas value be worth now if someone were to buy him? 15-20m still because of potential? 8-10m loss.

 

[yorch44]

As I said before, this bumteta is devaluating the club so much and wasting all our young talented players. Yesterday it was Douzy and AMN, today is Nelson and Salina, tomorrow it will be Balogun and Martinelli. Willock would be the same if he didn't went on loan and ESR was lucky he didn't had no other players to play. Saka was similar, he has his chance as LB because of injuries ... If not he wouldn't be playing, it would be Auba LW and Laca CF.

So, I don't trust the idiot we have as manager at all.

 

[dka1]

Arteta is just salty that Saliba's welcome video has more drip than his entire career, dusty manager

 

[Impact]

I’d leave to see an honest poll about how many have seen 20+ games of his. There’s a very weird fixation on him.

Why does this matter?

It is an extremely reasonable and defensible position for Arsenal fans to want to see a player signed for our second highest ever fee spent on a defender (and top 10 overall) to play a game or be given a chance before he is sold.

When you add in the reputation Saliba has acquired prior to his move and since then (made the Ligue 1 fans team of the season despite only joining Nice in January), it's all the more bizarre to take anything other than the stance of wanting to see him play here, doubly so when you consider our current options.

 

[El Duderino]

 

[El Duderino]

State of me having to agree with Hagn, ffs.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Very very upset for the lad if thats true. Can't really blame Arteta as he didn't sign him, if he doesn't rate him then he doesn't rate him. I can't say I was that impressed with him in our U23 games, very rash and a hell of a lot to learn.

Another abysmal Raul signing.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Tired of these stories why people just don't wait until see what happen after pre-season? we haven't signed Ben White yet too.

 

[El Duderino]

Very very upset for the lad if thats true. Can't really blame Arteta as he didn't sign him, if he doesn't rate him then he doesn't rate him. I can't say I was that impressed with him in our U23 games, very rash and a hell of a lot to learn.

Another abysmal Raul signing.

Literally up for the team of the season in Ligue Un having played just six months?

 

[daron christie]

If he’s going to be sold sell him away from the PL don’t want this coming back to haunt us closer to home

 

[NieThePiet]

He played two matches in the EFL Trophy, not sure what all of you have expected from a 20m transfer.

 

[OnlyOne]

Whetley hasn't got anything right this summer, I can't imagine we'll sell.

 

[dka1]

Very very upset for the lad if thats true. Can't really blame Arteta as he didn't sign him, if he doesn't rate him then he doesn't rate him. I can't say I was that impressed with him in our U23 games, very rash and a hell of a lot to learn.

Another abysmal Raul signing.

Shkodran Mustafi rejects new Arsenal contract offer

 

[TimoJens]

Very very upset for the lad if thats true. Can't really blame Arteta as he didn't sign him, if he doesn't rate him then he doesn't rate him. I can't say I was that impressed with him in our U23 games, very rash and a hell of a lot to learn.

Another abysmal Raul signing.

Check this out:

William Saliba

We sign Saliba & I've got no issue with the loan, he is only 18 after all & meant to be a signing for the future I'd imagine anyway. That would allow us to bring in a more experienced cb for this year like Izzo to also partner Sokratis then Holding hopefully sooner rather then later. We can...

arsenal-mania.com

Once again: You have no right to say a word about Saliba and his abilities.

 

[A_G]

A-M told me the French press were lying about his situation. Even though it was obvious they were getting their info directly from him or his agent.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

It's no surprise teams will be around him because he is talented and he won't be staying here to be 4th choice specially there is no European games and cup games are limited Arteta and Edu need to be honest and clear here if they don't want him just get back the 25-30M we paid for him and get on with business.

 

[TromsoGooner]

Very very upset for the lad if thats true. Can't really blame Arteta as he didn't sign him, if he doesn't rate him then he doesn't rate him. I can't say I was that impressed with him in our U23 games, very rash and a hell of a lot to learn.

Another abysmal Raul signing.

Impressive as he played in two EFL games that weren't even televised if I remember correctly.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

A-M told me the French press were lying about his situation. Even though it was obvious they were getting their info directly from him or his agent.

so hopefully the french club give us 25M at least so we sell. any loans they can f**k off.

 

[RunTheTrap]

Very very upset for the lad if thats true. Can't really blame Arteta as he didn't sign him, if he doesn't rate him then he doesn't rate him. I can't say I was that impressed with him in our U23 games, very rash and a hell of a lot to learn.

Another abysmal Raul signing.

If Arteta don't rate Saliba then there has to be an inquest into his talent ID because that's scary. I know some Arsenal fans go overboard with the Saliba praise (because we haven't seen him play in the PL) but he clearly has the tools to succeed here.
I keep seeing people bring up that "bad u23 game" but let's look at the context. He hasn't played any serious football for about 6 months. You don't think there's a chance he could have been unfit or rusty? And besides he has played at higher levels and shown his quality in men's football.
Raul may have been a charlatan but we still have to make his signings work for the benefit of the club. Arteta's misuse of players because he didn't directly sign them is poor asset management. As bad as Arsenal are, I hope we all know we cannot start from scratch to build a squad in his image. There are going to be some players, Saliba, Martinelli, Pepe that he has to learn to work with.