Arsenal signed William Saliba last summer and he was hailed as a player that will make the club’s defence better.
The 19-year-old had been making a name for himself in the French Ligue 1 with Saint Etienne.
He even helped them to reach the final of the French Cup last season while he was on loan with them.
He came back this summer with fans expecting him to become a key part of the club’s first team.
However, he is yet to play a competitive game for them so far and there are reports that he is going to be sent to the English Championship for a season on loan.
This is a surprising development considering the hype that surrounded signing him.
I do fear for his career as he nears a move away from the club.
I am worried that he might go to the Championship, struggle for game time, and still not achieve what he was sent there for.
The only reason why he will be sent to the English Championship is that he will get more playing time.
What happens if he joins another team and he is also considered not ready for first-team football and he goes without playing a game for much of this campaign?
I hate to be negative, but we have to really think about the fact that we may have wasted £27 million if Saliba cannot start playing regularly soon.
An article from Ime
Too early to say, as he is only 19. But it looks unhopeful, for sure. Not what we Gooners expected or hopedfor Not at all !
Why duch a negative post? He will get playing time, it will be written in his loan agreement. When Nketiah wasn’t getting time at Leeds he was bought back to Arsenal. Chill out man, he will be fine. He will not prove to be a waste of money.
Extremely negative post….he is being sent out to gain experience can we just allow that to happen without writing him off before even kicking a ball for the club? FFS
Too soon to give such assumption. We didn’t see him enough and I trust MA so if he feels that he needs more time to develop before he can use him we should trust MA and the player as he is young and new to this league.
Lol
The guy is 19 and has moved to a new a country. How many 19 yo CB’s have you seen move to a top premier league club and play straight away? van Dijk didn’t move to Liverpool until he was 27 and wasn’t even at Celtic until his early 20’s. He doesn’t need to play right away as there’s plenty of options at CB, so a season in the championship away from the expectation would do him good.
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There are personal issues which were unforeseen at time of purchase, and not his fault. Let’s give the boy a chance before slating him. He has the potential to be world class if he’s given time.
He’s 19 been through a lot and Real Madrid were after him. You want to see a replay of overuse ala Jack? Arteta knows what he is doing
It is worrying for a club our size to spend a huge amount on a CB, and not see him for two years! We just cannot afford to do that.
I’m not sure if Saliba will have 2 or 3 years left on his contract after this season, but if it’s 2, then we’ll have to offer him an extension, and a pay raise no doubt, before he’s even kicked a ball for us!
Yes that does seem silly to spend £25m when the club doesn’t have a bottomless pit of money. Let’s hope whatever decisions are made for his continued development work out
He is 19 and his close family relatife is just pass away (mom?)
Need playing football without hard pressure on him right now, look at “the emperor” andriano, one time, the world is under his feet, suddenly his father died, next morning hes alchoholic and few year later hes a gangster member
My god. It’s not like he is injured. I would rather have Saliba on loan for 2-3 seasons than having another injury prone player.
Once Arsenal can clear the deadwood CBs, saliba should be good ot go
Nobody could foresee what has happened plus he’s only 19! Yes, I think we’re all a little disappointed he hasn’t slotted straight in, but there’s plenty of time and if MA says his transitional year hasn’t gone accordingly and will go on loan for a year, then so be it! He’ll come back stronger and we’ll reap the rewards!!
LOL
Nice one, Sid 👍
Oh ye of little faith.As I said in an earlier piece on the issue of Saliba, name me any 19 year old centre backs who are holding down a first team position in the EPL?That’s right, there are none.Soyunko at Leicester spent his first season on the sidelines and has developed into a fine defender at the age of 24. Gomez of Liverpool and Ben White at Brighton are two talented young CB’s who are both 23. Saliba was not an Arteta signing but I trust him to take the appropriate steps to develope the young lad in the best interests of all concerned.Patience is a virtue which seems to be lacking in huge numbers of fans throughout the game in England.
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Anybody who writes “I hate to be negative but…” doesn’t really mean it.
I said the same thing a week ago when all the saliba posts were going about
He’s not a 22-23 year old who has been playing regularly for 2-5 yers now is he?
No he’s a 19 year old kid who had a turbulent year last season with everything that went wrong for the chap.
What people fail to realise is the fact we bought him on his pure potential and for the future. If he came in this season and started playing week in week out I would have been so shocked.
I really do believe that if lay season went according to plan with his development then he would have been loaned out to a premier league team this season to get used to the league, come back next season to push for first team football with us.
Now I’m going to say this nice and loud
YOU ARE DELUDED AND OVERLY FOOLISH IF ANY OF YOU THOUGHT HE WOULD BE A STARTER AT 19 WITH NO PREMIER LEAGUE EXPERIENCE UNDER MA.
He’s a long term investment not a short term fix.
It baffles the hell out of me reading all these silly doom and gloom posts, articles and comments about a kid that hasn’t even kicked a ball in anger ina competitive game for us.
We had a few behind closed doors friendlies that we conceded heavy amount of goals, did he play in those? If he did was he at fault? We don’t know now do we?
We don’t see the lad in training everyday now do we?
So how the hell can we judge things like this with no facts or evidence?
What ever you people are smoking, give me the dealers number because I think I need to get some to read half of this tosh!
Really!! We are so quick to judge on here.. the kid is 19years old moving to England from France, new country with an even harder league top to bottom and the price tag shouldnt be mentioned at all. Not his fault we paid £27m for him plus he was injured half the season then came back to covid so a stop/start twice in the season.
Someone up here above mentioned his mom passing away or a close relative so that puts things into perspective to just let the man grieve, concentrate on getting a full season possibly on loan of playing time then back when Mustafi, Sokratis and Luiz are all out of contract and will all leave along with Mesut.
Arteta has had half a season and look what hes done, be patient with the progress and his management. He will ease the kid into English football and society… Londons a big place! He will 20 this time next year ffs!!