William Saliba: Crack at the Back

[Thrice]

Was to be expected unfortunately. Now we wait for the news about Rice's state. And who knows about Saka...

 

[Batman]

We made excuses for him last summer and it just dragged and dragged and then we signed Madueke and panic signed Eze. Gyokeres turned up overweight and unfit late into our pre season too.

So the jury is still out for me. He’s got 4-5 outgoings to orchestrate and 4-5 incomings. Ideally some of these are there for pre season rather than being Ivan Gazidis buzzer beaters.

The fact here is that most of the accountability about speed, planning, back up options, negotiating, and execution in the transfer window is down to the DOF.

The reason this saliba injury is frustrating is we already seem a bit behind as we are going to have key players who are not fully fit such as rice saka maybe timber and white too. Berta knew that going into this transfer window. Saliba is just further compounding the situation.

Let’s see, absolute fair play if he pulls it off and we move fast, getting a few good signings in to actually have a pre season so they can hit the ground running. Fair play if that’s managed.

Madueke was a project signing from Chelsea. That has Arteta written all over it. Here's what we know for sure. We had zero titles in 22 years. Berta shows up and we win it in his first season needing every player he signed. We'd have won it earlier too if Arteta hadn't refused to rotate the midfield and had the team treating the ball like a bomb against the likes of Wolves.

I'm not saying that he can't be criticized but none of the blame you're putting on him can actually be directly 100% verifiably attributed to him alone. If you're saying Gyok wasn't in shape, was he supposed to be his trainer? How the hell is that his purview. His job is to sign the players the manager wants. He did that and we won the league.

It's weird to be going after him for no reason now, particularly when we're speaking about an injury that probably dates back years and the guy that Berta bought instead of Huijsen for 50m(like Arteta wanted) did a wonderful job backing Saliba up when he missed matches last season. The jury can still be out but if it's still out then it makes no sense for you to be convicting without evidence.

 

[Rain Dance]

I tell you who might end up with some minutes at RB:

you know what? if it keeps Teta from collecting CB like pokemon I am down with this idea. He gives us speed in counter attacks at least (passing sucks, I know)

 

[Batman]

you know what? if it keeps Teta from collecting CB like pokemon I am down with this idea. He gives us speed in counter attacks at least (passing sucks, I know)

I understand what you mean.

 

[El Duderino]

Umtiti stuff this.

 

[Batman]

We have to pray it's not the case but like I mentioned before, when I was a personal trainer, I saw people who were fairly athletic and had what were considered good surgeons have surgery, and even after rehab come back to me worse than they were when they needed the surgery and hadn't had it yet. It's still a very hit or miss area of the body. I would almost rather an Achilles than this. It would be a disaster if what could be a generational career in terms of his sheer talent level and the way he's worked at his craft is cut short or he doesn't return to his previous level.

 

[El Duderino]

We have to pray it's not the case but like I mentioned before, when I was a personal trainer, I saw people who were fairly athletic and had what were considered good surgeons have surgery, and even after rehab come back to me worse than they were when they needed the surgery and hadn't had it yet. It's still a very hit or miss area of the body. I would almost rather an Achilles than this. It would be a disaster if what could be a generational career in terms of his sheer talent level and the way he's worked at his craft is cut short or he doesn't return to his previous level.

Gee, thanks for the pick me up there, bruce!

Now I'm feeling a lot better about this whole ordeal.

Fan f*cking tastic, really. Mood immediately improved upon reading this.

 

[MartiSaka]

Expected something like this even before he went down in the semi-final.

 

[Riou]

Waking up and seeing this thread title...

 

[Mudi]

We knew it was coming. He gave us the title and a CL final. He can rest till January and then go strong again from Jan onward.

 

[DanDare]

This is potentially really bad. I've looked after many people having or who have had back surgery (admittedly not world class athletes, mostly middle aged overweight people)

It's not some magic bullet. Pain can remain or even get worse. Hope it all goes well and he recovers

 

[Red London]

Madueke was a project signing from Chelsea. That has Arteta written all over it. Here's what we know for sure. We had zero titles in 22 years. Berta shows up and we win it in his first season needing every player he signed. We'd have won it earlier too if Arteta hadn't refused to rotate the midfield and had the team treating the ball like a bomb against the likes of Wolves.

I'm not saying that he can't be criticized but none of the blame you're putting on him can actually be directly 100% verifiably attributed to him alone. If you're saying Gyok wasn't in shape, was he supposed to be his trainer? How the hell is that his purview. His job is to sign the players the manager wants. He did that and we won the league.

It's weird to be going after him for no reason now, particularly when we're speaking about an injury that probably dates back years and the guy that Berta bought instead of Huijsen for 50m(like Arteta wanted) did a wonderful job backing Saliba up when he missed matches last season. The jury can still be out but if it's still out then it makes no sense for you to be convicting without evidence.

You seem to think I’m blaming him for the injuries (or annoyed at him because we have injuries) when I’m not, thats definitely down to Arteta’s squad management, as well as the medical team. But I’m seeing that we are moving slow and I am putting pressure on the DOF because there’s so much to do. All those injuries can be arteta’s fault, it’s still down to Berta to move with speed in the window and get the job done. He does own the accountability for that. If he didn’t own that, then what is his job? We know what Arteta owns. Just because it’s not 100% down to Berta and there are other factors involved doesn’t mean he’s the man who carries the accountability here. Part of his job is managing stakeholders like the manager and still executing successfully.

And Gyokeres not being 100% rearing to go for the start of the season was because his transfer dragged out heavily, if it was executed faster then he would have been training with us a few weeks prior and be more fit + in shape for the start of the season. You’re going too far into saying that’s down to his trainer. Time is a damager, the longer you leave things more can go wrong and in this case he was shunned from training there for a few weeks before joining us iirc. So naturally it is not in your control and he’s likely to turn up not in shape + rusty, just before the start of the season. I used this example to show how in some cases leaving a transfer so late over a few million can end up costing you a player performing well and can potentially cost you points.

It already cost us Monga this summer as well. So I have seen a bit of a pattern of him over negotiating. I also don’t get how you don’t piss people off a bit with this plate spinning technique.

 

[dino bravo]

We won the title but at what cost. Our defence of it could be shambolic at this rate, all our most important players are crocked.

 

[Ljonin]

Disaster news that will no doubt have a big impact on our potential forward signings.

But hey maybe Martinelli will finally turn into Vini Jr this year!

 

[Sungod]

I read he had back problems since teens and two season back it became severe before breaking down now.
His back surgery is only solution.

 

[Rex Caudillo]

Big year for Mosquera hopefully.

Will have a fire under him for not going to the World Cup as is.

 

[MikelHadADream]

He’s our best defender. Massive drop off in quality to Mosquera.

Story of the season will be us hanging in there for the first half, and getting Saliba/Rice/Saka fully fit for the second half.

I think it’s going to be a real slog, and if the right signings aren’t made, I think it could get ugly.

 

[TH14shahriar]

Timber is probably going to be very very good at CB I think. We might be fine

We’ll use this as an excuse to under invest in attack though.

Bingo.

 

[Nunowoolmez]

 

[viktor]