Hello All! by Dgr8xt
One of the sagas which will apparently run deep into the summer window is the case of William Saliba’s contract. If you’re in love with our manager, you had better stop reading now cos I’m about to briefly re-open an old wound.
There has been a recent report that Saliba’s agents are demanding a lot of money to renew his contract. In fact, multiple reports state that Arsenal is shocked at their demands.
THE BACKGROUND
1. Arsenal FC agreed to pay a significant sum for him despite him not playing for us a full year because we saw him as being out of reach in a year’s time
2. When he finally arrived, he was left to sit at home for six months despite four competitions being available for him to play while Mustafi was stinking up the whole place
3. After his enforced sabbatical, he was loaned to OGC Nice where he was player of the month after his first six games and was effectively the best player at the club till his loan finished
4. He returned to Arsenal hoping to be given a chance to show what he had already shown abroad only for another young English defender in his position to be signed for £50m while he was sent on loan again which meant he was effectively replaced
5. He went to Marseille, led them to the Champions League, was voted best young player in France and had the highest appearance for any defender of his age in Europe while our defence was busy capitulating and missing out on the top four
6. At his return, much fan dissatisfaction, media pressure and obvious facts meant he had to be first choice in his position and was a key player for the team as we were on top of the table for 93% of the season while we capitulated in spectacular fashion when he became injured
WHAT HIS AGENTS HAVE SEEN
1. The manager was trying to get rid of him initially, but we need him now
2. He proved himself over and over again, came in, shored up our defence and kept us at the top of the league throughout his time on the pitch
3. His injury meant our complete collapse
4. He has only one year on his contract
5. He’s currently on £40k p/w and is certainly worth more than the £120k p/w that Arsenal have offered him. Saka and Martinelli’s contracts come to mind.
6. If he leaves, bigger clubs are willing to pay him more than us
7. PSG are willing to pay way way way more than us
MY PERSONAL VERDICT
I’m of the opinion that we should do what we can to pay up because:
1. He is widely regarded as the best defender in the world within his age group
2. Getting a player of his age and quality as a replacement will cost us at least £100m in transfer fees alone
3. His presence in our team means we can at least challenge for the Premier League title and guarantee we go far in the Champions League next season
4. This might be very harsh to say, and many will not like it, but the fact is that we need him to win trophies more than he needs us to do the same because any team he goes to from here will certainly be a winning team
Finally, to be fair to Arsenal, I’m not sure how much his agents are demanding. If (and most likely not) their demands are in the Mbappe, Messi, Neymar, Ronaldo range, we should immediately pay his flight ticket to go for a medical with PSG while we get an agency to look for a suitable house for him in Paris. But we should try to meet up with them as much as we can, because we won’t have to wait for years to say he was one that got away. We would be saying that at the start of next season.
dgr8xt
Video – Alfie and Rob are back for the summer transfer window
Here is their first analysis of the summer, where Alfie and Rob discuss and predict every single possible Arsenal incoming and outgoing this summer, including fees and potential destinations for outgoings.
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