Olympique Marseille’s attacker, Dimitri Payet, is surprised that William Saliba has never played for Arsenal as the Frenchman impresses in Ligue 1.
Since the Gunners signed Saliba in 2019, he has only enjoyed first-team football while out on loan.
He played at Nice last season and is now shining at Marseille where he is teammates with France international, Payet.
Saliba spent the first half of last season at the Emirates, but he didn’t see any first-team action and the Gunners also overlooked him when they registered players for the Europa League.
He proved he is a top-quality player on loan at Nice in the second half of the campaign, but Mikel Arteta still didn’t think he was ready for the Arsenal first team in this campaign.
Payet has enjoyed being his teammate so far and said recently that the loanee is the most impressive youngster in Marseille and he is shocked Arsenal hasn’t used him yet.
‘The new ones have all brought something different. After that, I am closer to younger players. The one who has impressed me the most is Willie [Saliba],’ Payet told French newspaper L’Equipe.
‘Considering what he’s been doing since the start of the season, I don’t understand why he hasn’t played more for Arsenal.’
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You and me too Dimitri!!!!!!!
And on it goes. One of the great mysteries, why a promising player is given no opportunity to demonstrate what he is capable of. We fans can only speculate. But I don’t buy the Arteta hogwash of needing more time etc. If that were the case then he too should have been sent out on loan to get more experience.