Arsenal cannot allow them themselves to be dragged into any bidding wars with bitter rivals Tottenham.
Of course, there is pride and all that but the best interests of Arsenal football club must take precedence. If Spurs beat us to William Salbia, so be it, that does not mean that the club should then start to try and hijack Tottenham deals out of some sort of revenge unless it suits us.
I am not saying that Arsenal should not make an effort for Nicolo Zaniolo, he is highly talented and does play in a position we need strengthening but why him over a central defender?
Why blast away a chunk of our limited transfer budget on one player in an area that is not as critical as other areas.
As I say, Zaniolo would be a good buy I do question the motivation behind going for him.
There are a load of great players we can sign that will strengthen the team but unless we sort the defence out then it will not matter what we do elsewhere.
I am not that bothered if we lose out on Saliba because we cannot use him this season, if we could then that would be a whle different matter but the reality is, we cannot.
So let Tottenham take him, let them win the race to sign Zaniolo, in fact, let them sign Ronaldo and Messi, I don’t care, I only care about Arsenal and what we need.
All these wingers, midfielders, forwards etc. should be secondary in our thinking. We need a central defender like humans need oxygen and the fact the club does not seem to have grasped that fundamental fact is worrying, very worrying.
So, in my opinion, Arsenal should forget about trying to fight with Tottenham in the transfer market and just get on with what we need to do make us competitive next season.
Beating Tottenham to Saliba and Zaniola will not ensure we beat them next season that you can take to the bank, not if we start the season with the same central defenders we finished last season with.