William Saliba: Here to Stay ✍️

[Tir Na Nog]

So this is all fantastic stuff, but this comp doesn't show him giving the ball away in a dangerous away leading to Mbappe almost scoring. If he was playing for Arsenal and he had a good game but gave the ball away and the opposition scored would we be praising him or criticising him? A lot of fans would be angry as hell.

Gotta be more balanced with Saliba, don't get dragged into a culture war.

I'd hope most would assume that a young player especially at CB is likely to make mistakes and wouldn't be too harsh on him. I mean it's not as if most of the CB's we have aren't prone to errors or giving the ball away anyways.

 

[teamsoutheast]

The guy has has the "rolls royce" gene all elite level CB's have. Physically dominant and very classy on the ball. I'm absolutely baffed at how the club have treated him, I want to see him in the first team next season.

.....'How the club have treated him'.... He's still only 19 mate. He's clearly not doing something in training that we require to be done in the match hence why he's gone on loan. He's got loads of time to learn and long term he will form a great partnership with Gabriel.

 

[Flying Okapis]

So this is all fantastic stuff, but this comp doesn't show him giving the ball away in a dangerous away leading to Mbappe almost scoring. If he was playing for Arsenal and he had a good game but gave the ball away and the opposition scored would we be praising him or criticising him? A lot of fans would be angry as hell.

Gotta be more balanced with Saliba, don't get dragged into a culture war.

To be honest, I havent seen him play much but if I was to judge off of that video I can fully understand why he is out on loan.

On one hand he seems to be pulling off these dribbles and passes from CB which is fantastic however if this is his style of play and he has a bad game or makes a mistake it will likely end up in a goal and be his fault so he has been put out on loan in Ligue 1 where he can make these mistakes if there is to be any.

Imagine if he dribbled the ball out at Arsenal and got dispossessed and it led to a goal, his career would pretty much be over here with media and fans hammering him.

And no, I'm not an Arteta fan.

 

[dashsnow17]

To be honest, I havent seen him play much but if I was to judge off of that video I can fully understand why he is out on loan.

On one hand he seems to be pulling off these dribbles and passes from CB which is fantastic however if this is his style of play and he has a bad game or makes a mistake it will likely end up in a goal and be his fault so he has been put out on loan in Ligue 1 where he can make these mistakes if there is to be any.

Imagine if he dribbled the ball out at Arsenal and got dispossessed and it led to a goal, his career would pretty much be over here with media and fans hammering him.

And no, I'm not an Arteta fan.

Yeah my point exactly. Arsenal fans aren't patient. They say "he's a young defender we'll be patient" but if a young defender costs you points how patient are you gonna be? We need to be more objective in our assessment of Saliba right now, and not get sucked into a pro-Arteta/anti-Arteta culture war.

He's a good young defender and it's good that he's out on loan. Yeah we made a mistake he should've been on loan from September but it's time to get over that and move on. Let's see how he is in the summer.

 

[Flying Okapis]

Yeah my point exactly. Arsenal fans aren't patient. They say "he's a young defender we'll be patient" but if a young defender costs you points how patient are you gonna be? We need to be more objective in our assessment of Saliba right now, and not get sucked into a pro-Arteta/anti-Arteta culture war.

He's a good young defender and it's good that he's out on loan. Yeah we made a mistake he should've been on loan from September but it's time to get over that and move on. Let's see how he is in the summer.

Part of the problem is these compilations make him look like a god, he may well be performing to that level, I really dont know but I'm certain a large laaaarge percentage of the people clammering for him to be playing havent even watched him enough to form that opinion.

I call bullshit on the majority of Arsenal fans who claim to watch Nice week in week out and even if they have hes played 8 games, they've lost 5 of those and conceeded 11, unless he is a clear standout in each its very hard to judge from that.

 

[samshere]

To be honest, I havent seen him play much but if I was to judge off of that video I can fully understand why he is out on loan.

On one hand he seems to be pulling off these dribbles and passes from CB which is fantastic however if this is his style of play and he has a bad game or makes a mistake it will likely end up in a goal and be his fault so he has been put out on loan in Ligue 1 where he can make these mistakes if there is to be any.

Imagine if he dribbled the ball out at Arsenal and got dispossessed and it led to a goal, his career would pretty much be over here with media and fans hammering him.

And no, I'm not an Arteta fan.

I don't think fans would start hammering him after one mistake. We turned on Mustafi only after repeated mistakes. We'd have shown the same grace to a 19 year old defender

 

[AberGooner]

Luiz has had some great performances the last year or so but eventually he'll always let you down and cost you results. Mustafi was persisted with for months last season as well till he got injured and he was always an accident waiting to happen, he almost cost us the City semi.

Saliba is a young defender so of course he'll make mistakes as well but I don't think anyone was expecting him to come in and be the finished article straight away. I certainly thought he'd play at least 15 to 20 games this season in all competitions.

I have a horrible feeling he will be gone permanently next season and those recent comments have further made me think that will be the end of the road for him under Arteta but I really hope I'm wrong.

 

[Flying Okapis]

I don't think fans would start hammering him after one mistake. We turned on Mustafi only after repeated mistakes. We'd have shown the same grace to a 19 year old defender

Maybe hammering him is not the correct word, but he will get a lot of heat. The English media wouldnt have it any other way, he plays for Arsenal, cost a fair bit and there is Arteta and him not playing etc; the story is unfortunately to easy for the media to lock on too and go over board with it and there will be fans who jump on it.

Do you really want a 19yr old exposed like that I dont know, again all hypothetical though so who really knows.

The situation is what it is.

 

[Makingtrax]

Didn’t Vieira slap Anelka in the face with his scholong?

Weirder things have happened.


For context, Anelka wrote the following in his autobiography:

Spoiler: .....

“My career at Arsenal was going from strength to strength until the day I crossed Vieira, who was better known in the Arsenal dressing room as ‘Le Long.’ I was playing against Fulham at Highbury and I remember receiving a ball from Bergkamp, then rounding the keeper with ease and, with the goal wide open, somehow managing to screw the ball wide at the last minute. It only happened because the sun was in my eyes. It wasn’t my fault! Anyway Vieira gave me a glare and I knew I was in trouble, afterwards in the showers he tore into me and I just snapped, I knew I shouldn’t have, but I called him a ‘lanky limbed boombaclart.’

At first he just stared at me with his hollow eyes. Then…..



WHAM!

Just like that he slapped me across the face with his Willie. Just once. But it knocked me back a few steps. It was like being struck by a wet kipper. No one could believe what they saw! Can you imagine how embarrassing it is to be smacked across the face with a 14″ pork sword in front of your team mates? It was the worst moment of my life. No one said anything for what seemed like an eternity, the silence was only broken when Ashley Cole asked “Is it my turn?” It was then I knew I had to leave. When Wenger found out what he’d done he merely high fived him and shouted “And that’s why he’s the captain. POW! Look at that thing!”

You'll believe anything.

 

[MikeVinna]

People saying he’s error prone really don’t get it do they. We’ve played old-man Luiz and Mustafi over him who we know are going to gift goals and red cards sooner or later. We could have bedded Saliba in over the last half-season and we’d be better off having him in the squad right about now.

But that’s just what I think. What’s done is done and I just hope he gets another chance when he returns in the summer. We’ll have cleared most of the idiot defenders by then (hopefully Luiz too).

 

[MikelHadADream]

.....'How the club have treated him'.... He's still only 19 mate. He's clearly not doing something in training that we require to be done in the match hence why he's gone on loan. He's got loads of time to learn and long term he will form a great partnership with Gabriel.

He was judged after 3 training sessions and was frozen out of the first team picture, despite the likes of Mustafi getting game time in the Europa league. He's obviously pissed off, and it comes across in his interviews.

 

[teamsoutheast]

He was judged after 3 training sessions and was frozen out of the first team picture, despite the likes of Mustafi getting game time in the Europa league. He's obviously pissed off, and it comes across in his interviews.

And is that the right attitude to show if you want to get into the team?? IMO, that's a poor attitude. He's still only 19 and has alot to learn. I'm confident his time will come but he needs to ground himself.

 

[Keplaz]

He was judged after 3 training sessions and was frozen out of the first team picture, despite the likes of Mustafi getting game time in the Europa league. He's obviously pissed off, and it comes across in his interviews.

I can understand why he is angry. He thought he would play and we paid a lot of money for him. Arsenal could have handled this so much better but there's more to this.

I read somewhere that we messed up the Saliba loan due to issues with Raul being sacked. He was apparently heavily involved in a lot of what we were doing transfer wise, and his departure left us in limbo.

Arsenal supporters are some of the most impatient fans around. People delude themselves to thinking Saliba would have been given time. The Arsenal team he came into was as low as its ever been, with a lot of work to be done.

Even if he is the second coming of Desailly, it wasn't the right environment for someone of his age playing such an important position. And he also had other personal issues to deal with.

We messed up with Saliba but the timing wasn't right for him. Arteta won the FA Cup but it was always an unsteady footing. I think he won too soon and created expectations which could never have been met.

Hopefully Saliba develops as we had expected at Nice. And that the relationship can be mended. He will always carry some anger towards what happened. But one would hope he sees the bigger picture. And I'm hoping there is one.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

A 19 year old centre back is going to be raw. Saliba makes rash / risky decisions, it's natural at his age. I'd much prefer him making those mistakes at Nice this season rather than Arsenal.

The raw materials are there with Saliba, it's just a case of him maturing a bit and improving his decision making. That'll come with time.

Hopefully next season his personal issues will be in the rear view mirror and he'll get fully integrated into the squad and we can go from there. If he feels hard done by he should use that as motivation to prove Arteta's decision this season wrong. As it stands at this stage of his development he doesn't look like starting material for Arsenal. That's not a knock on him either.

 

[MikelHadADream]

And is that the right attitude to show if you want to get into the team?? IMO, that's a poor attitude. He's still only 19 and has alot to learn. I'm confident his time will come but he needs to ground himself.

I think given the circumstances, its a fair reaction. He wants to play football, like any player. He'd just been transfered to the club for 30m, he obviously came thinking the club would put some trust in him, and after 3 sessions he was told he wasn't good enough. I think the majority of people in his position would feel really hard done by and would consider their options.

 

[MikelHadADream]

I can understand why he is angry. He thought he would play and we paid a lot of money for him. Arsenal could have handled this so much better but there's more to this.

I read somewhere that we messed up the Saliba loan due to issues with Raul being sacked. He was apparently heavily involved in a lot of what we were doing transfer wise, and his departure left us in limbo.

Arsenal supporters are some of the most impatient fans around. People delude themselves to thinking Saliba would have been given time. The Arsenal team he came into was as low as its ever been, with a lot of work to be done.

Even if he is the second coming of Desailly, it wasn't the right environment for someone of his age playing such an important position. And he also had other personal issues to deal with.

We messed up with Saliba but the timing wasn't right for him. Arteta won the FA Cup but it was always an unsteady footing. I think he won too soon and created expectations which could never have been met.

Hopefully Saliba develops as we had expected at Nice. And that the relationship can be mended. He will always carry some anger towards what happened. But one would hope he sees the bigger picture. And I'm hoping there is one.

Arsenal fans would have given him time. A lot are still hopeful on Pepe after 18 months of inconsistency. I'm sure they'd give a 19 year old rookie CB time.

I don't agree with the atmosphere thing either. There was a feel good factor at the start of the season after the cup win and relatively strong end to the season in the league. There was also a lot of excitement around the Gabriel Saliba thing.

I just can't condone mustafi getting game time over this lad in the europa league against the likes of Dundark and Modle. No one can tell me Saliba isn't good enough to face those teams. The situation is very concerning.

 

[Keplaz]

Arsenal fans would have given him time. A lot are still hopeful on Pepe after 18 months of inconsistency. I'm sure they'd give a 19 year old rookie CB time.

I don't agree with the atmosphere thing either. There was a feel good factor at the start of the season after the cup win and relatively strong end to the season in the league. There was also a lot of excitement around the Gabriel Saliba thing.

I just can't condone mustafi getting game time over this lad in the europa league against the likes of Dundark and Modle. No one can tell me Saliba isn't good enough to face those teams. The situation is very concerning.

Pepe doesn't cost us games with errors in the same way a centreback would. And Pepe is on his redemption curve now, people were not so sweet on him earlier in the season. Arsenal fans can be very fickle. Me included.

Gabriel has a different profile and he's also older. He is three years older and has played more games. The Premier league is a tough learning place for a young defender.

The feel good factor didn't hide the defeciencies in the squad and there was still a toxic environment within the club. We failed to sell players in the summer and started the season with a bloated squad, and a lot of unhappy peoplem

And whilst I think we made mistakes with Saliba, I don't necessarily think he was ready.

He played a few under 23 games and looked well off the pace. He was also injured a lot of last season.

Saliba could have played against Dundalk et al, but I don't think the manager thought he was ready, for whatever reason. Mustafi was still an Arsenal player. A calamitous one but vastly more experienced, which Arteta seems to rate.

We will see what happens when Saliba comes back.

 

[grange]

Our defenders make mistakes every match giving up possession in dangerous places. Saliba would fit right in here.

 

[TakeChillPill]

Sorry but the wack players are playing wack. Willian on the pitch we might as well have 10 men

 

[dashsnow17]

I watched a bit of Saliba against Rennes, he did some good stuff, also did stuff good stuff in the game against PSG, but in that game he gave the ball away and Mbappe almost scored, and today he gave the ball away and Rennes directly scored from it. Clear mistake. Nice won but their other CB should have been sent off but wasnt, so on another day they don't win and his mistake is a factor in it.

So nothing's changed really, he's doing good stuff, strides about like a colossus, but he is making mistakes.