Former Arsenal youngster, Stephy Mavididi, wonders why William Saliba is not playing for the Gunners now because the French youngster is an outstanding player.
The defender is currently on loan at Olympique Marseille, and he has been praised repeatedly for his performances at the Ligue 1 club.
Back at Arsenal, he has never convinced Mikel Arteta to hand him a chance.
While sending him out on loan for his latest adventure, Arsenal spent £50m on Ben White.
We expect Saliba to become an important member of the Gunners’ first team next season, but Montpellier’s Mavididi believes he is good enough to play at the Emirates now.
He tells Livescore: “That guy’s a player. He’s hands down one of the best defenders in the league, hands down.
“I think he’ll walk back into the Arsenal team next season.
“When I played against him I thought ‘How is this guy not playing at Arsenal?’ He’s strong, good on the ball, he reads the game well.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Saliba has shown substantial form while out on loan from Arsenal and it does remain a mystery why Arteta doesn’t think he is ready.
However, we expect that to change when he returns to the club and it would be great to see how he would perform.
Will be very interesting to see how this plays out at the end of the season ,from report’s I’ve read it does not look like he’s to fussed to come back here .
Having watched him play a few times over the last few months it would be a massive loss if this were to be true .
As long as Petty Arteta feels the guy disrespected him even in the smallest way, this guy will not play for Arsenal. He was mumbling his frustrations over no game time etc on social media before he was shipped out, and to make matters he chose to go to Marseille over the championship. Also, Arteta didn’t bring him to the club so that reduces his chances even more.
The rolls royce CB deemed not to be good enough for the Emirates….at the top of the wanted list at Real Madrid. Not to mention our Lamborghini striker now leading the strike force at Barcelona.
Just a few highlights from chaotic and shambolic reign of Mikel “For Free” Arteta.
Would love to see Saliba partner with Gabriel next year, and shift White to DM. Give us a very solid defense, and we can pick up a 4th CB much cheaper than a starting DM.
The saving could be put towards a top B2B midfielder, and other needed areas. Interesting to see the direction Arteta goes.
Would be a waste for Saliba to sit on the bench, especially when he could be a cornerstone of the defense for the next decade.
My thoughts exactly. Ben white would certainly do well in dm. Excellent carrier of the ball
i seem to be agreeing with a lot of your takes lol. if Saliba were to come back and prove to Mikel that he is good enough to play week in week out, i believe your suggestion is really on point, as i’ve thought that was the ideal thing to do since the summer when Benjamin White was signed. or better keep the three as center backs, rotate them properly and know there’s a nucleus of three really good and young cbs for the next 7-10 years at the club. one of the most pivotal things to do in my opinion next season is to make Saliba really feel at home and it will be in my opinion a testament to the maturity and evolution of Mikel as a coach.
just having a tough time seeing it…why would the same manager who paid over the number for another fairly young CB bring Saliba back into the fold…he’s too valuable of an asset to retain simply for coverage purposes and it’s clear that with Tomi’s acquisition and MA’s disinterest in Mavro that a back 3 formation isn’t in the cards, as such it makes me believe that he’s going to be offloaded…as for any talk about White moving further up the pitch into the DM position, this seems unlikely from an optics standpoint, in that it would be a tough sell should he struggle while playing out of position, considering the original investment…that said, I’m not opposed to any such move, but I would of rather that we had invested the White funds in a proven DM and simply had Saliba stay in-house this season while we still had other CB options available if he stumbled a bit out of the blocks
People keep saying bring him back he should be in our team.
Nobody has a clue how he would perform in the Prem.
He’s playing ok in a pretty poor French league.
(Pepe even looked good in that)
And Saliba made another cock up the other night.
I have seen the mighty Ben White making more cock up so what’s your point… And do I need to mention the names of players who came from this poor league to tore down the mighty Epl
Saliba is a must for Arsenal next season, his partnership with Gabriel would give us a rock of a defence. Also, I agree that White would be great as a DM due to his ball carrying abilities. Only hope Saliba is integrated back into the team.