Saliba fed up with his treatment by Arsenal and wants France return

William Saliba was seen by many Arsenal supporters to be our new defensive star this season, alongside Gabriel Magalhaes, but his arrival quickly fell flat as he was left out of Arsenal’s Europa League squad and is yet to feature for the Gunners in the Premier League, despite Arteta having hardly any fit defenders to choose from.

A few days ago, Arteta hinted that the youngster was integrating himself into the Arsenal squad, when he was asked by the Mail about Saliba. ‘Yes, he’s in a much better place,’

‘He’s feeling a lot more confident around the place, his language is improving and he’s starting to understand much better what we’re doing physically.

‘He’s played a few games with the under-23s which he needed because he didn’t play any football in the last seven or eight months. Things are progressively getting better and better.’

But now ButFootballClub.fr are reporting that the 19 year-old is fed up with his lack of game time and is desperate to return to St. Etienne in January. Their report says: “Saliba had to settle for a match with the U23 against the Liverpool reserves (0-1). Meanwhile Arteta had to deal with four central defenders being absent at Old Trafford: David Luiz, Calum Chambers, Pablo Mari and Rob Holding.

“Tired of his situation, Saliba would increasingly consider a new loan to ASSE, according to our information, he who was refused to be loaned to the Championship last month. And the interest is mutual. The managers of Saint-Etienne, very disappointed not to have been able to validate the player’s loan at the beginning of October, on the last day of the Transfer window, hold the France U20 international in high esteem, who was ready to cut his salary by half to wear the colors again. of his training club. Departure postponed?”

I can understand Arteta wanting to give Saliba time to find his form after 7 months of not playing, but as he has had a few months on training pitch, I can also understand that Saliba must be getting frustrated as well, especially with the dire injury problems with the Arsenal defence.

Who thinks that Arteta would allow him to go back to France to get some game time and get his form and fitness honed again?

Tags Saliba

33 Comments

  1. It’s a ridiculous situation, but one which looks like it stems from a legacy of the old, disfunctional structures at Arsenal.

    With Arteta and Edu now firmly at the helm, I’m hoping this nonsense finally stops.

    Saliba should be on the bench and getting minutes, slowly increasing to being a first team regular.

    No point in him going back to France and becoming further disillusioned. We need his quality in the backline now.

    1. Tony can you please explain what the old set up has to do with this situation?
      Arteta has been firmly at the helm, as far as team selection goes since the start of the season.
      Why you think anyone else is involved in Saliba not being selected is a mystery to me, especially as MA himself says he has made a mistake with the players omission from the squad.

    1. Yeah we should do that as we don’t have a lot of defensive options except Gabriel and Holding I would rather play xhaka at cb than mustafi so don’t bring him up

  2. Typical Arteta believe in experience over capabilities. He also have problems with managing young players like Seliba, Gouendouzi, Maitland-Niles, Nelson, Martinelli and Willock. Arteta want to fix Arsenal quickly, that’s the reason he bought Willian

    1. He hasn’t had a problem with Martinelli at all he has only started back training from a major injury, Guendouzi was shipped out because his discipline was complete crap and he isn’t wanted T club, Willock has been injured and isn’t ready to start and Maitland Niles is in the squad every game. If your going to talk at least have half a clue about what your talking about instead of talking nonsense. What manager isn’t trying to win right now??? Seeing as though your clearly a genius manager please explain to me in this day and age why you would keep a losing manager?

      1. Don’t think Arteta has problems with managing young players. He didn’t hesitate to give Nketiah and Willock ample action when he first took over.

        Questions remain on why he didn’t play Martinelli as much as expected, before his injury

  3. Personally I think the actual article in which this derives from is a bit BS.

    MA said only last week how well Saliba was getting on and that he regrets not registering him for UEL.

    So, to me this sounds like another media infused angle to try and disrupt things at the club

  4. Fofana, who Saliba had better reviews in France than , is currently playing first team football in Leicester and doing well because the manager trusts and believes in him.

    But Arteta has no belief in Saliba because he wasn’t the one who bought him and would rather try to convince the watching public that Saliba isn’t good enough for EPL Europa or even Caraboa role.

    This is too bad of Arteta.

  5. NO BRAINER…Saliba should be in any and every squad we have and should be getting minutes in every match we have, Has Arteta never seen this lad play for St. Etienne, i have and he was brilliant a class above everyone on the field. He comes to the Uk to a team that has a crappy record of defending for seven years and is treated like a junior??? I hope I am wrong but Arteta seems to be saying that if I did not sign you then you have to be better than anyone I do??

  6. This totally nonsense, Arteta think this is man city. He is so afraid to lost games, that is over playing our senior players and not developing our youth. Saliba is not good enough to play in his back 5 in a league or Europa cup game. Holding had to wait until there was nobody left to play. All the young ones game time reduce since he became our coach, Matteo, Martinille, Willock, Nelson, Holding, Saka and now even Pepe. Young promising players will not join our in the future. Is probably one of the reason why Matteo was difficult with him.

    1. TOTAL crap, im sorry

      Martinelli got injured in training after the resumption. but he played alot upto lockdown

      Willock played more games than any other player last season ( 44 )

      MG played a lot of football up till he mugged off the Brighton players and fell out with MA

      Nelson wasn’t good enough last season, far to inconsistent imo, the same can be said for Pepe.

      Saka played a lot of football last season and from what I’ve been told, he was carrying a problem post lockdown which resulted in him not playing as much. He is playing regularly

      Holding IMO isn’t good enough in the long run and again was injured for long periods. He is also playing regularly and was picked ahead of Mustafi at UTD even though he just came back to training 2 days prior

      I really don’t get where you got all this BS from. I guess some people just believe what they want to

      1. Much of the comments about Arteta having issues with youngsters are unwarranted.

        I did however expect Martinelli to play more before his injury. Given his form at that time, I couldn’t understand why Nketiah had more game time than him

        1. I think it may be down to Martinelli being a wide forward and Nketiah being a traditional CF.

          Everyone wants Auba to play down the middle but he, imo is better off on the left, it allows him to receive the ball facing the goal and not up against 2-3 CB’s. This is why Laca or Nketiah start down the middle as they both work very hard in the press.

          Now I’m not knocking Auba’s work rate in the press but with the way we set up and the teams we put out compensate for that to an extent with Saka playing behind Auba on the left side.

          Gabby will play when he’s back, of that i have no doubt

          1. Good analysis Val. Martinelli had some impressive performances on the left under Emery.

            If Arteta sees him as a wide forward and Auba stays on the left, that leaves Martinelli to compete with Willian and Pepe on the right.

            Can’t wait to see more of him when he’s back and hope he nails down a spot

        2. Hi val

          Here is one guy that clearly knows more about Martinelli game time than you.
          You need to read more to improve you Arsenal knowledge or actual watch the games, it clearing to the case consider your poor knowledge.

  7. I trust MA, we are 4 points off Liverpool and 2 points off top 4.

    We have the best defensive record in the league at the moment and we have played City, Pool and UTD away from home.

    Ligue un is not the premier league by a long way and if we were to throw Saliba in it could end up being a disaster for both parties ( I SAY IT COULD NOT THAT IT WOULD )

    I call patients, I’m sure he will start getting chances to play in the new year, if not sooner

  8. Personally I don’t like the way Arteta deals with some players. He has a predilection towards players he signed and has treated some players with definite cruelty. I will never condone unethical behaviour. I don’t doubt Arteta will be a winner, but the way he has treated this young boy, Saliba, is lacking in basic humanity. What comes first, Ruthlessness or Ethical behaviour? That answer should obvious.

    1. SW
      This is a recurring theme of yours regarding Arteta’s treatment of the players.

      There was Roy Keane referring to Arsenal’s soft under belly before the game at the weekend only for him to discover that Arteta had ironed that out. I believe that to win in life there has to be an element of ruthlessness – combined as well with kindness – to succeed. The Arsenal team before Arteta got his hands were pretty wishy washy and that has all but disappeared.

      Personally, I think you are over egging the cruelty aspect. The players are competing in a big boy’s world and not the Under10’s. To be able to go out in front of a stadium filled with supporters takes some steel anyway.

      I just don’t fully see how cruelty is being shown but I’m happy for you to explain that

      1. SueP, Exactly! This accusationof cruelty is arrant nonsense with no substance to it whatsoever. Putting the health of the team before the individuall happiness of any player is not cruelty but sensible and reality management.

        I am so pleased that after a full decade of drift, we now have a manager who demands standards and is ruthless in making it so. That is fine and appropriate managing, NOT, “cruelty” – an absurd and totally false accusation!

      2. Sue P
        Ruthlessness is not something good for any human being. Even Arteta. Football is not divorced from human decency and compassion. Are you ‘ruthless’ Sue?

        1. Goodness Sean, ruthlessness is not my guiding principle in the slightest.

          That said, at times a statement of intent needs to be made in life or in football. I’m not advocating it, but neither am I saying that steeliness should be removed from Arteta’s armoury. He is running a football team on which many Arsenal fans hopes and dreams of success depend. It’s the real world.

          In any case you see something untoward about Arteta’s approach to a fair number of players. That’s makes him a bully, and I’m not getting that feeling in the way they work for him on the pitch

          The Saliba situation is unfortunate but not ruthless in my opinion

  9. This sounds like a media invention to me. I would say though that the guy looks thoroughly miserable in all the training photos, and he was responsible for gifting the opposition a goal in the Under-23 match the other day.

  10. What Arteta does at times is very stupid and mind boggling. He must put Saliba on the bench and give him game time as a substitute. Arteta should know that Arsenal spent money on Saliba.

  11. Arsenal haters…please keep your politics out of football. The Gunners are doing well coz of Arteta. bye,

  12. instead of cruely maybe he is showing compassion to the lad didnt he just lose a loved one i looked miserable after i lost loved ones

  13. This”‘fed up” thing is probably taken out of context, he more than likely meant he was fed up with the situation and just wants to play for arsenal, so I really think this is just mischievous bullshit

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