There was much anger at Mikel Arteta last summer for allowing the 30m Arsenal signing William Saliba to go off on another loan at Marseille this season, and it can’t be denied that he was excellent in the first half of the season, earning a call up to the France senior team and helping Marseille into the Champions League positions in Ligue 1.
But now they have been less impressive recently, losing both legs in the Cup against Lyon and falling 3 points below Nice (who they face on Sunday) in second postion in the table.
Obviously Saliba is an integral part of Marseille’s defence, but he has now admitted that his form has dropped drastically. “I’m a young player but that’s no excuse” he old RMC.
“Since the beginning of February, I’ve been very average,”
“We must not hide. I know I have to work, I’m a young player but that’s no excuse. I’ll give everything to get back to my good level”.
The fact is that Saliba has played 27 of the first 28 Ligue 1 games thi season, which may be stretching the stamina of a 21 year-old, but he is hoping that his loan club can turn things around again. “We had a difficult month of February. We started the month of March badly. But we will quickly find the taste of victory and especially the beautiful game we had at the start of the season.”
Well, we all hope that he can regain his consistency if he is to persuade Mikel Arteta that he is ready to return to Arsenal, but he avoided any discussion on his future. “We will sit down at the end of the season,” he said simply.
So, the question is that if things don’t improve, the fact that Sailba is so young, he may end up going on yet another loan.
Or would having top class competition at the Emirates compel the youngster to up his game once again…
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Arteta discusses Leicester, injury news, home fans and the race for Top Four
Another loan? The only way that makes any sense is if he signs a contract extension and we loan him to PL team otherwise keep him in the squad next season.
Just get him back In the squad as he will be needed as we will be back in Europe In some capacity. We will need him as Gabriel & White can’t play every game, bans/injuries or loss of form cab change everything but he needs to come back, work hard and earn his spot in the starting 11.
Means we don’t need to sign a CB either which is great to focus on other key areas.
The Premier league commands so much more than the french league, he needs adaptation time to get used to the league itself and how its played at a high pace. He has all the tools to succeed here at Arsenal its now down to him to show Mikel he is the real deal to which I think he already knows this kid has something to offer us next season.