William Saliba has been an Arsenal player since 2019, but the defender has not kicked a ball for the first team yet.
He has spent two-and-half of the last three seasons out on loan and will face an important summer when he returns to the Emirates at the end of this season.
Mikel Arteta didn’t consider him good enough for his team at the start of this campaign despite his fine form while on loan at Nice in the second half of last season.
He is thriving at Olympique Marseille and he should surely be a part of the Arsenal first team at the start of the next campaign.
His future was uncertain in the summer when it seemed he might remain at the Emirates and play almost no football again.
However, the defender has now revealed how Marseille convinced him to spend this season on loan with them.
“When a big club like Marseille comes to get you, there are not many words to seduce you. Afterwards, when the coach talks to you, you want to come even more. He told me he was expecting me, so it was done pretty quickly. He plugged me in by telling me that I was going to play in front of 60,000 people, that the supporters were also waiting for me.” Saliba tells RMC Sport as quoted by Le10Sport.
Just Arsenal Opinion
The decision to send him to Marseille on loan has paid off big time and even he should be happy with the club.
This is because if he had stayed at the Emirates, there was a very slim chance he would have played regularly and he certainly wouldn’t have earned his first senior cap for France.
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Im afraid he has been appreciated at Marseille more than he was at Arsenal. He wont be keen to come back.
I think he will be put into the team Reggie for next season but if Arteta is still here then I cannot see him signing a new contract which then means we will have to sell the year after or once again lose a player for nothing .
From his interviews he’s given over the last 2 years it does not look promising for him being here in the long run .
Loan paid off big time for whom – for the player or the club? If press reports at the time were correct, the player offered to take a pay cut to get away from Arteta’s childish games.
First, he was told his loan form to Nice was not signed and returned on time; and then told he was excluded from the Europa squad because of an error.
Saliba runs the risk of becoming another Nuno Tavares under Arteta, the career killer. He has earned the rights to resist coming back to the club as long as the rookie-manager is still here.
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So the genius Arteta thought Saliba was not ready, yet loaned him to a club to be a starter and play Champions League Football to boot.
Huh?
Not good enough for Arsenal, yet good enough to play Champions League with another club?
How in the world is that justifiable by Arteta? Makes zero sense.
Europa league pal.
The way Arteta always get credit for Saliba loan is quite ridiculous.
You didn’t believe in the lad, and another coach took that advantage. Reached out personally to the lad and convinced him to join his team. But guess who get the credit, our coach that never gave him a chance in more than 2 years.
We have tons of players on loans, why are you not giving arteta credit for the loans of Niles, Nelson, runnerson, Pablo. Ooh they are not doing so great as saliba. I didn’t even mention guenzo and toreira.
Why should another manager take credit for what he didn’t do??
Spot on !
All the comments above are 100% correct..
CL football is a must for our club and, despite going nine years without a trophy, it was a norm for us to finish in the KO stages.
My question is, why would Saliba give up CL football and does he trust MA?
After all, Holding, White, Gabriel, Pablo, Chambers and Kolasinac were all deemed to be better defensive players.
The only thing I care about now is that we desperately need a new and experienced manager at the end of this season. Enough talent wastage on the bench, giving out players for free or paying them to play for other clubs. Could we not get even £10m for Aubameyang? I don’t care what anyone says, but the truth is that we did not need Ben White last summer, not when we had Saliba and certainly not for £50m. Arsenal is a global brand and should not be used as a training ground for any of Guardiola’s rookie assistants. Terrible in-game football decisions costing us so much. Edu is extremely clueless and I blame him for what has happened to Saliba. At this stage, I don’t mind having Emery back
The way Arteta always get credit for Saliba loan is quite ridiculous.
You didn’t believe in the lad, and another coach took that advantage. Reached out personally to the lad and convinced him to join his team. But guess who get the credit, our coach that never gave him a chance in more than 2 years.
We have tons of players on loans, why are you not giving arteta credit for the loans of Niles, Nelson, runnerson, Pablo. Ooh they are not doing so great as saliba. I didn’t even mention guenzo and toreira.
Why should another manager take credit for what he didn’t do??
A keep saying how Mustafi was allowed to play ahead of Saliba is beyond me.
The first deal Arsenal should conclude before the summer is replacing Edu, with Marina Granovskaia,
There is a small hope the kid may still want to remain at Arsenal, that may be down to the compadre with Smith Rowe and others.
But he is an Arsenal player and should be welcome back, his contract extended with new terms correctly adjusted and given a brand new five years, and then integrated into the squad.
I strongly suspect the gaffer will make no mistake this time.