There has been hundreds of column inches about William Saliba, who has been an Arsenal player for three years but has not kicked one ball for the Gunners first team.
But I think it is fair to say that the youngster has been very successful in France and seems to be well respected for his performances in his mother country. He has now received his call up to the French national side, and in an interview he was asked about his future from the summer, when his loan period ostensibly ends.
Getfootballnewsfrance reports that he told RMC in the interview: “I’ve never hidden the fact that I feel good here.” Saliba said. “I don’t know what my future holds, there’s still two months to go. The most important thing is to qualify for the Champions League and go as far as possible in the Conference League.”
“I think discussions will take place afterwards, at the end of May to early June, between Arsenal and Marseille – we’ll decide at that point. But staying on here would definitely not be a bad idea, on the contrary, I know the city, my teammates, my manager. But it doesn’t depend on me.”
That sounds like he is keen to stay, and it would certainly give him more chance to go to the World Cup if he is in view every week, as opposed to maybe playing sporadically at Arsenal. I honestly can’t see Arteta breaking up the White/Gabriel partnership unless forced to by injury or suspension.
I’m pretty sure Arteta wants him to come back to Arsenal in the summer, but if Saliba decides he wants to stay in France, could Arteta force him to come back?
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It’s a dicy development, the white Ben partnership can’t be broken, however worse come to worst we will be in europa league (though we are UCL bound), and will be playing two domestic cup competitions as well. Squad dept is essential.
But then having him on the bench will dip his form and Mar his development.
Pablo and holding ain’t that bad.
I say we sell him for minimum £60m and reinforce.
We don’t have Pablo Mari anymore. Our fourth choice CB is probably Tomi at the moment, or Tierney depending on availability – not ideal
I think we have someone coming from the MLS in the summer, but who knows how well he’ll get on
He’ll be here next season. End of. Like he said, it doesn’t depend on him. It means Arsenal still have a huge say over where he’ll be next season.
With UCL and more competitions next season, squad depth will be needed and heavy rotation will take place weekly. Depends on if he’ll be part of the players that gets called in when it’s time for rotation. His àss knows this.
Good kid, improved massively. Needed here to come compete with Ben White next season
have any of you seen him play? he’s better than gabriel and Ben white!
@Rob
RealTalk…
Simple truth is that he is under contract as our player. All other considerations fall apart when that fact is considered. He will play for us next season and I FEEL CERTAIN ABOUT THAT.
My sense is that Saliba has a clever agent who is doing a good job to maximise the terms in Arsenal’s incoming contract extension offer.
Can Arteta force him to come back you ask. No is the answer, as he could do what Fabregas and Koscielny did and go on strike. Hopefully he doesn’t, comes back and proves himself in a top league.
He is the only blemish on the gaffer management this far,
We should never find ourselves at this spot at this point in time, hoping he would want to stay , a suspect its Edu personal intervention, why we may have a chance of him wanting to stay along with the compadre of the happy kids.
How on earth Mustafi was allowed to play in Arsenal team, while he wasn’t even able to make the squad is beyond me.
Bless with raw natural ability, definitely one for the future.
It’s for these reasons I think Wenger should have been shift upstairs over a decade ago.
Gunsmoke, an inability to find ANY CB since Sol CAMPBELL OF REAL QUALITY- and I include Koscielny in that as he was good but not TRUE TOP class – was in my view a key component of Wengers long term failure to put our leaky defence right.
MA HAS put it right and has a real TOP class CB in Gabriel. Easily our best since CAMPBELL.
Agent is doing his job, and keeping options open for his client. Like the comment above, it’s a negotiating strategy for more money and playing time I’m sure is the angle.
Why would Arsenal sell one of the top young CB’s in the world? We need depth in the position, and Saliba facing competition for starts would be the next level of development for him.
I’m sure the player understands this, and frankly I hope the club doesn’t answer the phone for any bid under 70 million.
He’s almost 21, very young for a CB. Imagine in 5 years in his prime how much he could potentially be worth in market value?
Personally I hope White is moved to DM, and Saliba starts with Gabriel, and we find a 4th choice CB to partner with Holding as depth.
Then we could focus on a B2B, and another backup midfielder rather than the cost of a DM, B2B, and one of our 3 good CB wasting on the bench.
Free Saliba! The player has earned the right to make his own decision regarding the future. We had the chance to mold him into a top class player but failed miserably.
After taking a pay cut to play for Marseille on loan , the player has resurrected his career and rebuilt his confidence. Do we expect him now to give up his starting center back role in Marseille to sit on our bench behind White and Gabriel. That would be injustice at the highest order.
Bon voyage Saliba!
RFarncis Yet another post from someone claiming to be a fan of our club but clearly putting his devotion to the player ahead of a (to be expected -but not shown) devotion to our CLUB.
I never understand those who claim to be fans of AFC but who prefer such and such a player to the club. Not my philosophy at all,as a true GOONER, thankfully!
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Marseille can’t afford him if we slap £50million on him so he’s definitely coming back to us,end of disscussion.
The big difference between Arsenal and Liverpool/ or Manchester city is the quality and depth of their squads. What’s wrong with Arsenal having Saliba, Gabriel and White as center backs competing for places, when TOP teams have four and five quality players for each position on the field. Why some so called fans are so quick for Arsenal to sell Saliba?,when, He’s one of the best young talents in Europe. What is wrong with players coming off the bench? Isn’t there something called squad rotation? And, even if Gabriel and White has been doing good defensively for Arsenal and Saliba can now come into the squad to make it stronger ,it’s to the benefit of the team. During the afcon competition, Liverpool was without several key players, yet , they won most of their matches and never lost a game, simply because of the quality in their squad depth. Arsenal need to keep Saliba and not sell him. If he’s good enough to play for world cup champions France, why can’t he play for Arsenal. None of our current center backs are better than Saliba. Compare the stats. We should be happy that he is an Arsenal player . Because if he was not, based on his form and performances, some fans would be asking Arsenal to buy him ,as he fits bill for players needed by the club.
Three at the back, Gab, Saliba, White, 4 mids, Tierney, Partey, Odegaard, Taveres 3 frontmen Martinelli, Laca, Saka. Totally requires Saliba. Balance Attack-Defense.