William Saliba: Here to Stay ✍️

[MaraDon]

Are we going to align the 3 together ? 3-4-3 ?

we are going to get 25-30 million pounds for him at the end of the season.

 

[MaraDon]

We are 10th place. 10th. Do you think 10th is where a big club should be? White showed absolutely nothing at Brighton to suggest that he's worth paying 50m for and he's shown nothing here to prove he's worth paying 50m for. There was zero competition for his signature. You have the audacity to suggest the chuckle brothers know about running a big club when part of the reason that Saliba hasn't got the PL experience that you're overvaluing is because the club failed to send him out on loan immediately last season and instead prioritized using players like Holding and Mari in Cup matches where he could have cut his teeth. By the way, prior to Gabriel making his first start for us last season, he had exactly as much PL experience as Saliba, as did Wesley Fofana. Both were rated below Saliba in France and both were handed PL football immediately.

Nobody with eyes and objectivity thinks that Ben White is a better player than William Saliba. Statistically Saliba is better in pretty much every category. He's bigger, stronger, faster and more composed. Gabriel is clearly our best defender and just 18 months ago it was pretty much universally accepted that Saliba was the vastly superior prospect. Never did you see me say that Saliba should have just been handed a role in the first team BUT there is no reason why we should have a player on our books that we paid a decent sized fee for who is performing better than what we have at the club for someone else. That is utter stupidity and if you think that's how a big club should be run then you're daft. Saliba should be at this club, period. Ben White's one extra year of PL experience at Brighton means sweet f*ck all compared to Saliba being head and shoulders above him as a talent. We could easily have brought in an experienced player to give Saliba time to bed in. Instead, he's performing for someone else while an expensive replacement makes a gaffe a game. That is not how well run clubs operate.

start watching football.

 

[drippin]

Quality matters. Rob Holding has considerably more Premier Leauge football under his belt than Ben White and yet you're comfortable with one playing for us but not the more experienced one because you think that Ben White has better quality. If we signed someone like Varane or even Dunk then ok. We signed a player with BARELY any more PL experience that Saliba and CLEARLY less quality. We wasted resources downgrading a position because one guy was mediocre in the PL before while the other guy has 'only' been EXCELLENT in France. There is no way for you to slice that decision that makes sense. Again, I'd have been fine with the club brining in a significantly more experienced player if that's why they feel Saliba isn't ready. Bringing in a clearly inferior player with a tiny bit more experience is ridiculous and just another in a series of awful decisions made by Arteta and Edu.

You just can't understand, that White has played two seasons in England, with almost all the league games played. Saliba has played at most 44 % of the minutes White has in his longest season, and has a full EPL season on top of it.

It's of no use to discuss this more, as you won't realize the club's position on who to depend on as the 2nd starting CB, with backup being Holding, who can't build-up play well, or cover a high-line, which are both White's strengths.

I'm not saying White has been very good yet, not nearly, but he is improving and showing more each game.

Saliba could have been as good, or better, or worse in EPL. Or injured. But in any case we would need a CB next summer, if no Saliba. Like a top club needs.

(Holding's time should be out as the 3rd CB soon.)

Next year we could have Gabriel in his 3rd season, White in his 2nd season and Saliba in his 1st season in EPL for Arsenal. Looking at it now, I could go with it for a decade. Average age like 23 for CB's would be ridiculous (and actually have exactly 24 years old starting currently).

 

[TinFish]

Unfortunately I don't think either Saliba or Guendouzi will ever feature for Arsenal FC again.

 

[drippin]

Unfortunately I don't think either Saliba or Guendouzi will ever feature for Arsenal FC again.

I'm not expecting it either, with that annoyingly lovely hippie whispering in his ear.

In that sense it wasn't the best loan destination for him, but we can't know what he demanded himself (I think he demanded France?). Doesn't look so good in this regard, as they both have some common ground.

(Guendouzi was obligation to buy, so he is gone already.)

 

[DasBootist]

I am confident Saliba has a future at Arsenal. He's on loan making a fool of Arteta for the second season in a row, and Mikel will have to eat humnle pie and start using him from next season on.

 

[Batman]

You just can't understand, that White has played two seasons in England, with almost all the league games played. Saliba has played at most 44 % of the minutes White has in his longest season, and has a full EPL season on top of it.

It's of no use to discuss this more, as you won't realize the club's position on who to depend on as the 2nd starting CB, with backup being Holding, who can't build-up play well, or cover a high-line, which are both White's strengths.

I'm not saying White has been very good yet, not nearly, but he is improving and showing more each game.

Saliba could have been as good, or better, or worse in EPL. Or injured. But in any case we would need a CB next summer, if no Saliba. Like a top club needs.

(Holding's time should be out as the 3rd CB soon.)

Next year we could have Gabriel in his 3rd season, White in his 2nd season and Saliba in his 1st season in EPL for Arsenal. Looking at it now, I could go with it for a decade. Average age like 23 for CB's would be ridiculous (and actually have exactly 24 years old starting currently).

I understand perfectly what you're saying. It has no logical merit attached to it, therefore there's no benefit to understanding it. You're overvaluing experience and undervaluing ability when the difference in experience is tiny compared to the difference in ability. It's of no use to discuss further because you're projecting a pragmatism and planning upon the club that doesn't square with reality. We might actually be the only club on earth that would pick Ben White over William Saliba at any price, let alone White costing nearly double. This experience that you point to is negligible compared to the disparity in ability and you still cannot answer why if experience was the sticking point you have the barely more experienced Gabriel and White as a pairing with dreck like Holding, Mari and Chambers as backup.

You can't explain why the club have seemed to prioritize youth and talent over experience everywhere on the pitch but with Saliba. You can't explain why someone like Martinelli can come from the 4th division of Brazil and be thrown in with no regard to his inexperience but the club couldn't get a kid who was already drawing comparisons to Varane and Van Dijk 2 years ago a couple of appearances to see what he could do. You can't explain why if the sticking point with Saliba is inexperience in England, the club couldn't sign an experienced partner for Gabriel to help them both develop.

It's frankly ludicrous to keep harping on about experience when Saliba is a better player than Ben White in spite of having less experience. I'm not sure how you think points are won in football. Nobody assembles the oldest team and tries to win that way. You win with ability and any action where you are sending out players with more ability and then wasting money on players with less ability is flawed and deserving of criticism. Ben White looks absolutely clueless back there at times. Do you think he's marshalling anyone around in defense? He's not. Gabriel and Ramsdale have to tell him where to be. That is not the sort of experience that you justify sending Saliba out on loan for. Saliba could be in the exact same position learning on the job that Ben White clearly is and we'd probably be higher up the table with an extra 50 million, minus what it cost to buy decent, actually significantly more experienced cover for Saliba. And this harping on how one has played in England and one hasn't is insane. Who in England is harder to mark than Messi and Mbappe? The challenge in England has always been the physicality of it. Do we really want to compare the physical profiles of Saliba and White? C'mon now.

 

[Goonerwether]

That's a lot of words.

 

[DasBootist]

That's a lot of words.

That's a dearth of words.

 

[Haphazard]

Embarrassing post

 

[Wryer]

The tackle on Mbappe was Nesta-esque.

The likeliest outcome is we get a good price for him and let him go. There's clearly irreparable damage done.

 

[DasBootist]

The tackle on Mbappe was Nesta-esque.

The likeliest outcome is we get a good price for him and let him go. There's clearly irreparable damage done.

Nothing clear regarding the amount of damage done thus far. Unless you are Saliba posting on this forum under the alias Wryer, or you can read Saliba's mind, I would say 'hold your horses'.

 

[Maybe]

Nothing clear regarding the amount of damage done thus far. Unless you are Saliba posting on this forum under the alias Wryer, or you can read Saliba's mind, I would say 'hold your horses'.

He will have two options next summer: playing under the manager who thought Mustafi and Mari were better options or playing CL football with either Marseille or moving to one of the top clubs, and I wouldn't be too surprised if that ends up being PSG.

Yeah, nothing clear about it

How fcking dumb a manager can be to end up in a situation like this in the first place. It's sickening to think both him and Edu have all the support from the club, probably why I feel nothing for this club anymore, even wins against Villa and Sp**s were whatever to me, felt nothing, which is not a surprise tbh and most of my "Arsenal friends" feel the same

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Ready for 3 of the top 5 forwards on the planet. Not ready for Pukki and Benteke. Makes absolute sense

 

[<<reed>>]

Ready for 3 of the top 5 forwards on the planet. Not ready for Pukki and Benteke. Makes absolute sense

wasn't ready to face phenomenal Rapid Vienna and Dundalk in the EL last season too

 

[Rimaal]

 

[Rimaal]

 

[Maybe]

Mari would never...

 

[carlito'sway]

Embarrassing post

This Martin dude is a clown.
By the way, it should be IF Saliba comes back not WHEN.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I've seen Koscielny put in challenges like that for us loads of times. Don't get me wrong it's a good challenge, gets made a meal of because it was on Mbappe though.

Overall he does look to be developing really well though.

White, Gabriel and Saliba will be a really good core of CB's next season hopefully.