William Saliba is in line to get a new Arsenal deal after impressing while on loan at Olympique Marseille this season.
The defender has been on the books of the Gunners since 2019, but he hasn’t yet played for the senior team.
He has been on two different loan spells since Mikel Arteta became the club’s manager, with the Spaniard remaining adamant that he is not yet good enough to play for his team.
Saliba did well at Nice in the second half of last season and has played over 30 matches for Marseille in this campaign, delivering solid performances in most of them.
That has been enough to earn him his first France cap and it seems Arsenal now know they have a top player on their hands.
The Sun claims the Gunners are prepared to extend his contract when he returns in the summer.
They also expect him to be an important member of the club’s first team in London from the start of the next campaign.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Saliba’s maturity on his current loan spell proves Arteta was right to send him away to a club where he can play regularly instead of keeping him at the Emirates.
We have spent some good money on Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes, Saliba will now join them to give us solid options in defence from next season.
I hope Saliba will be on the same page, the boy is highly talented losing him would be bad
Arteta decided that Saliba like Guendouzie like Ozil like Aubameyang had the wrong attitude. Saliba like Guendouzie like Ozil like Aubameyang believed Arteta had the wrong attitude.
Saliba wants an apology from Arteta but for Arteta it is my way or the highway.
Arteta bought 50m White and his partnership with Gabriel has helped Arsenal to within touching distance of top 4.
Saliba likewise has found success at Marseilles with fellow cast off want away and now gone Guendouzie and Marseilles are also within touching distance of CL football.
There is too much bad blood between Arteta and Saliba. With Guendouzie sold for a pitance and Auba lost for free Arsenal will not want to lose this battle too. Marseilles will refuse to pay over the odds and things will get ugly and just inflame the already toxic situation. Arsenal will no doubt demand 50 mill while Marseilles will no doubt counter with a 12mill offer. Saliba will say you kicked me out and he wants to stay in France and does not want to work with Arteta who disrespected him and say he will only return if he starts. Artea will say no one is a nailed on starter. Saliba will say when given a chance I won a starting role and have helped my club to top 3 in France why should I go back to Arsenal who said I was not good enough and sit on the bench. Arsenal wil say we have a contract. Saliba will say just like Ozil I will run down my contract while you pay me to sit on the bench be an unsettling influence in the squad and I then leave on a free in two years time. And so it will go on back and forth. Mostly this is about pride and ego player manager and club all being at fault. Better to just let Saliba go for his purchase price of 27mill otherwise another Aubameyand Ozil stand off is looming. But ego may win out and things will just get toxic and ugly. Arsenal were at fault for sending Saliba back without giving him a chance. Saliba showed when given that chance he can play. Arsenal created the mess and now must clean it up. Simple.. Unfortunately when pride and ego are involved nothing is simple.
how can you be so wrong in so many things?do you eat any fish at all?
Hehehehe. He sounds like a fan of Saliba’s loan team. It is not unusual for young centre backs to go out on several loans over a few years. That seems to be the norm. He probably returned to France because of his mental health related illness of family deaths. He will back next season abd continue with his development.
Brah, you’re an egg, all that writing and it’s all nonsense. Don’t believe for one second that you know what’s going on between players and coaches. Until you can confirm for me that you are either William Saliba or Mikel Arteta your word means nothing. What Auba did was repeatively breaking rules. Ozil showed no passion to be there and Guendouzi did was hold a player by the throat in aggression and had an attitude that was too unstable for Arteta to want in his squad. Arsenal always knew they had something wonderful in Saliba and he’s been loaned out to get him game time not cause he’s not wanted…
Shut up 🤣🤣🤣🤣 this ain’t a soap opera 😂😂😂😂😂
fairfan RARELY HAVE I EVER READ SUCH A LOAD OF TOSH!
You have foolishly bought into this nonsense that MA has downs on certain players for no reason at all.
MA, like all other wise managers – even like unsuccessful ones too – will always choose the player he best thinks can help the team at any one time.
If a player is loaned than it is for good reason and NOT because of some stupid, half baked, reason of a so called “vendetta”.
I had respect for you until reading this complete nonsense. Sigh!
You’d be a good storyteller. This your concoction will be good for kindergarten storybook.
It’s an interesting story fairfan, I don’t know where you are getting this detailed information from but it sounds like a far more interesting story than it probably actually is
It has certainly been an unusual situation from the off but my view would be that he will come back from his loan and compete for his place in the Arsenal team next season
We will see I guess
He has great imagination and should write stories for little children.
Saliba will be back in the squad next season.
Saliba will return and get a new deal especially when we return to Europe, we will need him plus can play RB aswel as Ben White.
He’s been outstanding in France and he may now realise that what Mikel done was the right thing for him & his career. Arsenal are thriving also so perfect time to come back into the fold. Still disappointed Matteo never came back but it is what it is….
Our back line options;
Tomi – Cedric
Saliba – White – Gabriel
Teirney – Taveres
Not bad and we have a few decent young RBs out on loan.
This will save us a fortune and will let us concentrate on a midfielder, attacker and Striker.
Why do you all disrespect Rob Holding!
He was a big part of our FA Cup winning team, only last season!
We will be in Europe next season, regardless of whether it is the UCL or the Europa League.
It will be even more important when we are allowed 5 subs next season.
How Mustafa was allowed to play for Arsenal over this young man (William Saliba)is beyond me..
Andrew, Fair Fan may be wrong about the others but he is spot on with William Saliba, just before Arteta send him back to France, and I quote Arteta, I prefer players with zero ego,
Both Arteta and Saliba has ego the size of a Macka breadfruit ,
A keep telling fans this is the only blemish I have seen on Arteta Management this far, it was pure personal behavior Arteta uses against the lad, he even wanted to send Saliba down in the championship to gain experience.
The club should have never allowed Arteta to get his way here.
Other premier league club did showed an intrest (loan), but Arteta I suspect was cynical as it would have cause share embarrassment,
That’s why I support the call for Wenger upstairs
But we humans all have egos.
There is not a single healthy human with zero ego. If you are talking about levels of ego then I agree. We all have varying levels of ego, some have low, others have medium, others have massive (high), then extra high etc 😊
I want high levels of egos that don’t turn into over petulance, over cockiness, and bratty etc.. This will keep causing fiction and disharmony.
We don’t know why Arteta failed to give Saliba a chance to start with. Like many I have always questioned why Saliba was not given a chance by Arteta. This always baffled me.
But Arteta is the manager, he has his own opinion. He will succeed or fail on his own decisions. That’s what I can say.
For a young developing footballer, ego is the last trait you want in him or the team. What ..a 20 year old wanna dictate terms to the manager. Where did you learn that this works for a footballer and his team .? Take a look at MU and how destructive egos can be..Nobody is bigger than the Club. If Martinelli can keep his head down and wait, who is William Salina to complain. . Is he already top notch.? He hasn’t played PL has he.?
Arteta was right to send him out on loan.
When MA took over we had a massive squad, most were below par and were basically unsellable then the pandemic hit.
Saliba was already on loan at St. Etienne.
MA, rightly wanted and felt the need to bring some balance to the squad and add some competitivity to certain area’s, So Mari and Soares came in, it was the right call at that time.
And if you say Mustafi shouldnt have played ahead of him, just ask yourself one thing.
Would you have played him at 19, no premier league experience and as a team are in a transition?
I would argue that after MA took over, we saw the best Mustafi we had ever seen, playing alongside Luiz.
There was no Ego imo, just the need to work on what was best for the club through a tough financial time and the fact we had numerous CB’s at that time and you can only play 2-3 at a time.
He needed time to develop playing regularly and he has had that, now he is a full international, he’s doing very well.
As a new coach you want to get the best out of the experienced players around you, especially if you cant move them on.
This was the best decision to loan him out, add some experience etc etc.
Ppl like you who bash MA with no evidence, just hearsay is just silly.
I have never heard MA or seen in writing MA say he doesnt want ego’s at the club, with Ozil and Auba they didnt play ball with the non negotiables, Guendouzi is another Nasri with his attitude and we all know what happened with him and the France national team way back in Africa – Saliba is different – MA openly said how bad he felt leaving him out of any squad and not sending him on loan for those 6 months before the Nice move.
He said he wasnt ready for the premier league and i have to agree with that, 2 years on now, it looks like the player is more than ready to challenge for a first team place next season.
I for one differ on view that Arteta has destroyed carriers of many talented Arsenal players or he has let go of important players or someone saying that’s the only problems they see in Arteta that he doesn’t know how to do man management.
I think success of a coach is not determined by which players he let go but by which players he keeps and how he uses them.
Jerome Boateng let go by Mac City but look at success they had after him.
Mohamed Salah, Kevin de Bruyne ,Romelu Lukaku, Declan Rice at age of 14, Nemanja Matic (twice) and many more let go by Chelsea. Most of them by Jose Mourinho who won 3rd PL for them in 2015. Chelsea despite letting go great deal of future superstars still continue to have massive success.
Diego Forlan, Paul Pogba, Wilfried Zaha, Gerard Pique etc are big names Sir Alex Ferguson moved on from ManU and he had fantastic success.
Yaya Touré couldn’t get along with Pep. Pogba felt depressed under Mourinho, Didier Drogba & Lampard would run through brick wall for him. Roy Keane & David Beckham had fallout with Ferguson, Carlos Tevez with Roberto Mancini, Pep and Eto … and so on. History shows that a coach doesn’t have to get along with everyone but they must not compromise on their philosophy and believes to get success.
It’s natural to have more fallouts when a young manager is trying to take control of club where player power has been strong for few years and culture not very productive on pitch. There has to be a clearcut in such cases as has happened at Arsenal and result has been encouraging since. Many times gaffer will get his decisions wrong. I for sure don’t have direct contact with Saliba or MA so I don’t know if his movement was mutually decided or there has been lack of trust between the two. Its all speculation and personally believes of fans.
Honestly Saliba seems to be very talented with good future and I would prefer his success comes at Arsenal but more important fact is that MA has given us a CB pairing which is best in over a decade. I rate delivering better defensive record over retaining a great talent. Obviously I am not happy with just top 6 or top 4. But I also understand that we won’t go from 8th to winner straight. It will be a journey and as long as I see the journey I will back coach irrespective of who he let go.
Neither Ferguson will be Ferguson or Pep will be Pep if they do few things as per what they feel is right and few things basis what fans think is right.
What we have don’t have is not relevant, important is what we have. I am fine with Mo.Salah & Kevin de Bruyne kind of players being let go by Arteta provided he gets success like Roberto Mancini, Ferguson, Mourinho and Pep had for their clubs for our Arsenal.
Saliba should return and play for Arsenal. The PL is a much more competitive League than the French League and now that he is more mature and ready, I think Arsenal will readily accept him into the first team. With Saliba in, it will drive both White and Gabriel into further better performances since there will be quality competition. Secondly, Saliba can play with Gabriel with White playing as DM if required. With Saliba coming, our defence will be more solid and compact. Also with European games and considering injuries, form and rest periods, it is always better to have squad depth at all positions.
Funny
There is no reason in this world Apart from injury for Saliba not to play for a whopping six months. Arsenal player an incredible number of games then Europa league, league cups
Are you saying Saliba is not good enough even to feature against Malmö in Europa league even for 10mins.
Some will never see faults in Arteta
And will bring down heaven looking for reason to justify all his decision
I like Arteta for many reasons but I don’t have to turn blind eyes when he gets it wrong.
Believe me with his experiences so far he must have known that he did not handle saliba’s situation in the best possible professional way
Funny
Is it better for his developement to play few games in a year for Arsenal or play every game in very good Ligue 1? Do you think that he would be better player if he played those few games here then he is now? On how many loans did ESR go?
I totally disagree, the poor chap hasn’t had a chance to prove himself at the Emirates. He can be very good when he has to be and mediocre when he isn’t having a blossoming day. Which isn’t half bad, I’ve been a gooner from 1997 we can’t hope for a Adams or Dixon. The boy has potential, we gave Mesut games after games and this guy deserves his chance so did Mavropanos but it just didn’t happen.
Agree on mavropanos. Massive potential we just threw away, and he’d shown it to us in his first game. Strange one
So is this what Saliba is/has become?an Arsenal outkast??
That’s exactly my point mate, Saliba was handled extremely poorly.
Wesley Fofana from the same club in France both of them was playing there together., got his chance at Leicester and the rest is history.
Maybe the egos wasn’t so high there
Our only saving grace now is the compadre he seems to have developed with the young squad here.
You can’t fault him if he decides he would rather be somewhere else
Saliba is in a very strong position,
As much I support Arteta and think he is the perfect man for the job now , I know in his heart, he knows he’s got this one wrong.
Am still amazed how Mustafi was able to play ahead of this youngman.
I have been saying this before Mustafi left the club
This is an explosive one that is going nowhere unless we get the lid on it, here I think Wenger would have been perfect
What happens if William Saliba refuses to accept an extension, even on an upgraded contract? Would he be sold at a profit or loss, or run his contract down for a big pay day?