Martin Keown has slammed Arsenal’s decision to try and ship out William Saliba on loan, adding that he is ‘anxious’ to see him in action.
The Gunners signed the 19 year-old last summer in a deal which saw him see out one last year on loan with former side St Etienne.
Saliba enjoyed another impressive season in France, despite a couple of injury setbacks, before joining up with the Arsenal squad in July.
There was plenty of talk about Saliba coming in to fix our lacklustre defence of last season, but the club now looks ready to move out on another loan instead.
“It’s bizarre. We’ve just not seen the kid. You want to see him to see how he performs say in the Championship to see if he’s good enough,” Keown told TalkSPORT.
“I’m anxious to see. The feeling was that this was going to be the one. Gabriel has come in and been an outstanding signing. Maybe they feel he’s too young and want him to go out to pastures new.
“To then loan him out when there was a real problem there last season seems a real mystery.”
Arsenal have moved to bring in Gabriel Magalhaes this summer, who already looks likely to play a key role in the heart of defence, and he may well have only been signed due to Saliba’s failure to convince Mikel Arteta that he was ready for a role.
Do we think Gabriel was always a target, or did Saliba convince Arteta that another defender was needed this summer?
Patrick
