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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

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
If we're going to have a CB making mistakes next to Gabriel I'd rather it was Saliba so he can learn than Mustafi who will never learn
You've been on a roll lately. I laughed out loud at this. :lol::lol:
 

Trilly

Hates A-M, Saka, Arteta and You
Trusted ⭐

Country: England
I was actually (kind of) at peace with the club's decision to shelter him but seeing Fofana not be an absolute liability at PL level (actually he's played very well so far) has made me question everything.

It's not like they were regarded as neck and neck prospects. Saliba seems to unanimously be regarded as the bigger prospect so why is he not deemed as good enough for even Europa minutes?

El Bleepo Test is creating more questions than answers at this stage in his management career....
 

DanDare

Emoji Merchant and Believer-In-Chief
Trusted ⭐

Player:Saliba
Does Fofana start if Soyuncu wasn't injured though? We saw Leicester ease Soyuncu in over the course of a season. He'd played 84 professional games. Saliba has played 28 ever.

We should ease him in, he's 19.
 

Dutch D

Well-Known Member & FPL Champion 19/20
This situation is really perplexing to me.

I would always play the big talent. At Ajax the mantra is good enough is old enough. Sure De Ligt made some mistakes, but he grew exponentially throughout the season and became a key player in a highly impressive CL run.

I thought Saliba is a top prospect. Our CB options are ****. Play him next to Gabriel, accept they will both make some mistakes but they will grow throughout the season. Really need to see him included soon.

I really worry about our management if he still isn't featuring by December/January. We can't afford to spend 30m+ and then wait 1.5 seasons for him to even start once.
 

Tumblin'Dice

Hates Reddit
We offered Mustafi a contract extension THIS summer.

Saliba can't even get in the squad and wasn't even registered for Europa.

Tells me everything I need to know about the decision makers behind the scenes, Saliba is not the problem.
 

Tumblin'Dice

Hates Reddit
Wasting a year of development, next year they'll say; "he hasn't played competitively for a full season. He needs a loan, maybe to a championship team."
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
He would have played Europa but there was a possibility he was going to go on loan. The Europa squad deadline came before the domestic transfer window deadline.

Arsenal Head of Loans, Ben Knapper interviewed a long list of interested championship clubs right until the deadline and in the end they weren't convinced. The clubs who were the most keen all had established CB pairings.

The thinking was if he was going to learn the language and acclimatise, he might as well do it here with us.

After the Gnabry nightmare, the club are very careful about their loans now - especially a 30m signing, hence the promotion of Ben and the very drawn out process behind the scenes.

The real f*ck up was the St Etienne loan - its not clear whether it was us or them who dropped the ball with not getting the paperwork over the line. I assume that will get revisited in Jan maybe.

Charles Watts followed it all closely anyways, the way he explained it - makes sense to me. I thought this was all common knowledge but I guess not.
 

Goonger

Well-Known Member
Was interesting to see him used alongside Auba, Hector & Wrighty in the Pharrell Williams collaboration strip launch. He did answer his questions in English, all be it a bit broken, so I certainly don't think language is an issue either. Hopefully we see him get gradually introduced.
 

RandomHero84

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Saka
If he doesn't play this season, near 30m is miss-spent. We do not have the money to invest 30mil in to projects we aren't either going to utilise immediately, or facilitate regular game time for at close to the required level.
 

GunnerShy

Well-Known Member
Don't care what any of yall say his exclusion from the Europa league squad is beyond baffling..
Pretty sure everybody was surprised at the time, with the only logical conclusion being he was about to go on loan. When that turned out not to be the case it became an even greater shock.
As it was, we had to play Luiz against Rapid Wien which probably contributed significantly to his injury on the weekend
 

Hleb's Sirush

Established Member
Does Fofana start if Soyuncu wasn't injured though? We saw Leicester ease Soyuncu in over the course of a season. He'd played 84 professional games. Saliba has played 28 ever.

We should ease him in, he's 19.

There is no better way to ease in a player than to play them in the early rounds of the league cup. Where almost every team wheels out their second string/youth players or the group stages of the EL.

I was one of those people who wasn't expecting him to straight away become a fixture in our back line. I thought he would be slowly integrated into the side, starting with cup games and the odd PL game then gradually nailing down a starting place.

What I wasn't expecting was that he couldn't be deemed ready enough to face Leicester's 2nd string or some farmers from Austria. Which is why I can't believe this is down to his footballing abilities but maybe the tragic personal turmoil he has experienced. Well I really hope it is the latter otherwise he has been mismanaged horribly.
 
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