William Saliba is one of the stars of the current Arsenal team, and he seems like a new signing.
Although he has been on the books of the Gunners since 2019, it was his successful loan spell at Olympique Marseille last season that earned him a place in their current team.
The defender is now one of the first names on the team sheet at the Emirates, and he is also enjoying his life as a footballer.
Mikel Arteta was criticised for not starting him earlier in his career and allowing him to leave on loan.
But he could have struggled to play at the Emirates, and the loan experience has made him a better player.
He agrees, and spoke about his Arsenal career so far in a recent interview.
“I came back here to win so it’s nice to start the season well,” he told Canal +, relayed by Coeur Marseillais.
“We had a very good start to the season until the Manchester game, but we’re still top.
“From a personal point of view, it was better for me to go on loan to play, make mistakes, learn. I came back stronger and with new ambitions.
“These experiences have shown me that football is complicated, but that you should never give up and believe in yourself.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Some players move out on loan and lose their way, while others move out on loan and become better players.
Saliba has achieved progress in his career so far because of his mindset, and that will help him develop further at Arsenal.
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Arteta was right after all
Oh look at that, who would’ve thought. The loan would make him hate Arsenal and we’ll lose him, so most Arsenal fans said.
The delusional ones who had agenda btw
Surprise, surprise
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I believe MA rival coaches I here are reading this, football is much more than having the ball on the feet.
We all can agree the loan made him develop more into a man, their were room for him to make costly errors and learn..
It was a good move, no doubt about that, but it was also move of convenience.
He had just hired White for a huge fee (he had to play him!) and hired Tomiyasu as well. Gabriel needed reassurance and time on the pitch without Holding on the side as White was the future.
There was no room for Saliba last year in the back four. Great it worked well.
He has all those players now – and Saliba is playing (so is White). Not exactly a logical argument there CanFan.
It was simply a developmental move and what most of the whinger crowd don’t seem to understand is that Saliba was part of the decision, this isn’t something that was forced on Saliba such that he went off to France in a huff, he understood the need to develop and he went there and did it (not everyone succeeds in the development phase, so credit to all concerned).
This should put that particular discussion to bed.
The only surprise for me is that this was ever in doubt.