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William Saliba: Here to Stay ✍️

Who?

  • Van Dijk

    Votes: 31 10.8%
  • Saliba

    Votes: 241 84.3%
  • Maguire

    Votes: 14 4.9%

  • Total voters
    286

Batman

Head of the Wayne foundation for benching Nketiah

Country: USA

Player:Saliba

What does he mean by this?
I don't think it's too difficult to read into. We know the timeline of events. Saliba was disappointed not to be allowed to play in the cup Final for Saint Etienne. He then felt that he was sent out on loan without getting a proper look the following pre season after rotting in the reserves for months. Generally when a club buys you for 30M, particularly the club you support, you have an expectation that they intend to play you. It seems that Arteta assumed there would be some hard feelings over what he admits was a mistake in terms of not getting him game time either with us or via an earlier loan but if there was it seems that Saliba's desire to play for Arsenal outweighed that and he was willing to let bygones be bygones to further that ambition. That seems to have pleasantly surprised Arteta and now he is benefitting from it.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
I don't think it's too difficult to read into. We know the timeline of events. Saliba was disappointed not to be allowed to play in the cup Final for Saint Etienne. He then felt that he was sent out on loan without getting a proper look the following pre season after rotting in the reserves for months. Generally when a club buys you for 30M, particularly the club you support, you have an expectation that they intend to play you. It seems that Arteta assumed there would be some hard feelings over what he admits was a mistake in terms of not getting him game time either with us or via an earlier loan but if there was it seems that Saliba's desire to play for Arsenal outweighed that and he was willing to let bygones be bygones to further that ambition. That seems to have pleasantly surprised Arteta and now he is benefitting from it.
Also I think it means that Arteta never meant to treat him badly or had any grudge towards him, but he didn't know if Saliba did the other way around. But he was surprised with the maturity of Saliba.

I think both have said that Saliba wasn't ready to start at Arsenal when he first came here, Saliba said he had too big view of his own level at that point.
 

AbouCuéllar

Author of A-M essays 📚
I think both have said that Saliba wasn't ready to start at Arsenal when he first came here, Saliba said he had too big view of his own level at that point.
Yeah, he definitely wasn't. The player I saw at the U23 level after the first season out on loan was very raw and had very poor decision making. Amazing, absolutely amazing how much he has evolved in two years, just speaks to his talent level and natural ability (mental).

Last season after the loan to Nice I don't know. But by all accounts he developed a lot last season too.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Yeah, he definitely wasn't. The player I saw at the U23 level after the first season out on loan was very raw and had very poor decision making. Amazing, absolutely amazing how much he has evolved in two years, just speaks to his talent level and natural ability (mental).

Last season after the loan to Nice I don't know. But by all accounts he developed a lot last season too.
Yeah that could have been the reason for the first part of the season being out of the squads.

@samspade Here is another reason that's possible why he was left out, to protect him. Which would make a lot of sense, even if the player would not understand the decision at the time and wanted to play.

It was so weird to see him not go on loan, not be in the squads, that the level issue plus this losing parents issue in combination is like the only thing that would explain it. Of course a young ambitious player is like "I want to play, I'm not affected by it.", but they very likely don't realize the burden of such loss and needing some time off.

"However, it now looks like Wiliam has more than a good enough reason to be shielded from the public scrutiny game time would bring with it: Spanish journalist Kike Marin reports that Saliba has recently lost both his parents and is struggling to cope emotionally,

If that is true, our hearts go out to William. We can't even begin to imagine what he's going through right now - he's not even 20 years of age. We can only wish him all the mental strength he can muster and pray he will eventually learn to cope with such a tragic loss."

 
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Batman

Head of the Wayne foundation for benching Nketiah

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Also I think it means that Arteta never meant to treat him badly or had any grudge towards him, but he didn't know if Saliba did the other way around. But he was surprised with the maturity of Saliba.

I think both have said that Saliba wasn't ready to start at Arsenal when he first came here, Saliba said he had too big view of his own level at that point.
Yes. To be fair, Arteta is a young manager and going by maybe what has happened with his relationship with other players whom he has had differing views with in terms of playing time or attitude or whatever perhaps he thought it could be frosty with Saliba as well and to his surprise, Saliba is extremely mature and just focused on doing well for this club that he loves. Yes, Saliba has admitted that he needed to work harder and the club have admitted that they handled that period where he wasn't registered for Europa and was just in the reserves poorly. What matters at this point is that Saliba has transformed the team defensively and Arteta seems to have improved his man management skills with experience. Both are doing a good job now so that's all that really matters.
 

NieThePiet

Loves Overhyping Our Rivals
Hopefully the other clubs have seen his positional play before the second goal, that was criminal.

Not sure if he could have gone closer to the passmaker before the first goal, but that was more the fault from Gabriel.

Otherwise another good performance in a big game. Especially he should be normally the partner next to an experienced CB, while he looks the more experienced CB compared to Gabriel.
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
Not his most dominant games the 2nd goal he shouldn't let Firmino escape him that easily but allowed he have 6/10 game guy been amazing
 

Zaza

Active Member
Could've done better for Pool's second goal but he was good. Times like these show how inexperienced that CB partnership is.
 

Makingtrax

Worships in the house of Wenger 🙏
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saliba
I thought Saliba`s contribution to that first goal has not been talked about at all. That was incredible calmness in the first minute. I thought he played the most important role in that goal.
He calmly removed the ball from from one attacker and side stepped another just outside our box and 3 passes later it was goal for us.

His contribution to our back line is immense. He's the best CB we've had since Campbell.
 

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