William Saliba: Rolls Royce

[DJ_Markstar]

I was having a chat with my friend and we concluded Saliba is one of the best Arsenal centre backs we’ve ever seen.

Being the age I am, my top three that I can legitimately remember watching play are Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure and Willy Saliba.

Koscielny did really well here, Mertesacker was okay, Gallas the same. But none can touch Saliba IMO.

Do you remember Tony Adams? He was in the utterly elite bracket for me, a more traditional CB but won EVERYTHING in the air, would have also been an ideal partner for Saliba.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Do you remember Tony Adams? He was in the utterly elite bracket for me, a more traditional CB but won EVERYTHING in the air, would have also been an ideal partner for Saliba.

I remember Tony Adams but can’t really recall watching him play. He retired when I was like 6 sadly.

In my own lifetime as a Gooner, Saliba is right up there.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

50mil and 100mil in 2008 would be like spending 200mil or 300mil in today’s market. I wasn’t expecting us to do that.

There were opportunities within our grasp that were not big money signings.

Vincent Kompany joined City for just £6m from Hamburg in 2008 when they were still quite far off our level. The same window we signed Silvestre from United to replace Senderos. The following window we signed Squillaci while Chivu moved to Inter for just £12m. For DM - Yaya Toure joined Barcelona for €7m.

We had limited funds, yes but the funds we did have were all spent on creative attacking players like Nasri, Arshavin etc. while our defensive spine - GK, CB, DM was left to rot.

Iirc, Kompany rejected us supposedly because he was being touted as a DM. We now know a little about City's back door dealings but, yes we certainly struggled with signing the grit players. Xhaka/Kante was all down to agent fees. The lesser money that we had could likely have been better spent but on whom? Not every player fancied the PL back then. Now though, we're throwing money around and have still missing out on our first choice targets eg Mudryk. We'll have to win as becoming debt free and having more money isn't on the horizon as as a good reason (or excuse for some) anymore.

 

[Riou]

France losing ANOTHER tournament this coming summer they should have won with ease, due to Deschamps being an idiot...

 

[Riou]

Also can people on here STOP comparing our (talented and promising, but haven't done anything yet) young players of today, with our literal elite legends of the past who achieved true greatness and saying these current lads are better ffs!

Stop being such thirsty bitc3es...you are making me hate Rice and Saliba because of it

 

[Maybe]

Also can people on here STOP comparing our (talented and promising, but haven't done anything yet) young players of today, with our literal elite legends of the past who achieved true greatness and saying these current lads are better ffs!

Stop being such thirsty bitc3es...you are making me hate Rice and Saliba because of it

If you look at it like that I guess Cygan achieved more than Saliba, but this discussion is about talent and individual quality, and Saliba is definitely at the top

 

[GDeep™]

I was having a chat with my friend and we concluded Saliba is one of the best Arsenal centre backs we’ve ever seen.

Being the age I am, my top three that I can legitimately remember watching play are Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure and Willy Saliba.

Koscielny did really well here, Mertesacker was okay, Gallas the same. But none can touch Saliba IMO.

I’ll go with that. Sol was by far the best post Adams, Saliba is the best of the rest.

Adams the best ever in the history of English football according to many, misses out on the hype as his peak was before the PL/TV explosion.

 

[Gooner Zig]

France losing ANOTHER tournament this coming summer they should have won with ease, due to Deschamps being an idiot...

I read Deschamps' quotes (translated in English) and it's not a dig at all, just explaining why it's more difficult for him to reproduce his Arsenal form for Les Bleus.

He's (Deschamps) is still an idiot though - he's been deploying Saliba on the left hand side when he's definitely a right sided CB.

 

[GDeep™]

France losing ANOTHER tournament this coming summer they should have won with ease, due to Deschamps being an idiot...

Did you even read what he said? He’s not having a dig, he said it’s been hard for Saliba because he doesn’t know when or if he’s playing, with Arsenal he knows he’s playing every week so can mentally be ready.

If anything, he’s given excuses to why Saliba hasn’t always been great for France.

 

[Riou]

I’ll go with that. Sol was by far the best post Adams, Saliba is the best of the rest.

Adams the best ever in the history of English football according to many, misses out on the hype as his was peak was before the PL/TV explosion.

Not just a brilliant defender and leader was Adams, but was underrated on the ball to be honest...had everything.

Wish Arsène arrived earlier in his career and he played he more progressive/attacking teams to show his talents, was an ELITE player.

 

[Gooner Zig]

Did you even read what he said? He’s not having a dig, he said it’s been hard for Saliba because he doesn’t know when or if he’s playing, with Arsenal he knows he’s playing every week so can mentally be ready.

If anything, he’s given excuses to why Saliba hasn’t always been great for France.

Yeah and it's more to do with him being deployed at LCB vs his preferred RCB. I'm biased but all the other French CBs are bums compared to Saliba so I would be building the defence around Willo but whatever.

 

[AberGooner]

I read Deschamps' quotes (translated in English) and it's not a dig at all, just explaining why it's more difficult for him to reproduce his Arsenal form for Les Bleus.

He's (Deschamps) is still an idiot though - he's been deploying Saliba on the left hand side when he's definitely a right sided CB.

Yeah nothing like the heading appears. He did predominantly play on the left side for St Etienne and Nice though, definitely something he can be comfortable with given time.

 

[Bloodbather]

France losing ANOTHER tournament this coming summer they should have won with ease, due to Deschamps being an idiot...

Clickbait title. Wasn't a bizarre dig at all. Basically said he hasn't played for the NT that much and feels pressured to prove himself when he gets minutes unlike Arsenal where he's locked-in as a starter.

 

[Riou]

Maybe it wasn't a dig, though I don't like him implying that Saliba only players well for us because he knows he's playing no matter what (sounds like he's saying William is a little weak mentally)

Either way I just don't like Deschamps, the fact he has only won one tournament with this French squad (despite how strong it is and how weak a lot of other top counties are right now) is shocking imo.

 

[GDeep™]

Also can people on here STOP comparing our (talented and promising, but haven't done anything yet) young players of today, with our literal elite legends of the past who achieved true greatness and saying these current lads are better ffs!

Stop being such thirsty bitc3es...you are making me hate Rice and Saliba because of it

Not sure about this. Saliba IS a better CB than Kolo.

Nobody in our history is probably going to achieve what Kolo did, doesn’t mean we can’t compare.

Sanchez, RvP, Özil, Santi, Rosicky, Cesc, Hleb etc were all better than Parlour, Petit, Ljunberg etc.

I don’t buy judging by success angle, player v player is better.

 

[Riou]

Not sure about this. Saliba IS a better CB than Kolo.

Nobody in our history is probably going to achieve what Kolo did, doesn’t mean we can’t compare.

Sanchez, RvP, Özil, Santi, Rosicky, Cesc, Hleb etc were all better than Parlour, Petit, Ljunberg etc.

I don’t buy judging by success angle, player v player is better.

I am not saying they can't be compared, just wait until they have actually achieve something before they do...think our fans are a bit too quick to compare someone like Saliba to an Adams or a Van Dijk.

Winning at the top is the true barometer for me, the pressure to get ove the line and win the big trophies is immense.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

I’ll go with that. Sol was by far the best post Adams, Saliba is the best of the rest.

Adams the best ever in the history of English football according to many, misses out on the hype as his peak was before the PL/TV explosion.

Not sure we'll ever see something like him again at Arsenal. One club man and all of that. People often talk about that back four, but Adams had to contend with limited defenders like Colin Pates, Andy Linighan, Gus Caesar and Pål Lydersen. It was not all the well oiled unit all of the time.

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

Not sure we'll ever see something like him again at Arsenal. One club man and all of that. People often talk about that back four, but Adams had to contend with limited defenders like Colin Pates, Andy Linighan, Gus Caesar and Pål Lydersen. It was not all the well oiled unit all of the time.

He also fought alcoholism on top of that, which makes him my GOAT

 

[Riou]

Not sure we'll ever see something like him again at Arsenal. One club man and all of that. People often talk about that back four, but Adams had to contend with limited defenders like Colin Pates, Andy Linighan, Gus Caesar and Pål Lydersen. It was not all the well oiled unit all of the time.

We hadn't won a cup since 79 and the league since 71, Adams introduction into the team helped us break both those drought in 87 and 89 respectively.

He also fought alcoholism on top of that, which makes him my GOAT

Had to battle it very publicly too, lost the England captaincy over it too in 1997...a lesser man would have crumbled.

Instead he came back and arguably had his best season for us in 1998, when we won The Double.

 

[Sapient Hawk]

I remember Tony Adams but can’t really recall watching him play. He retired when I was like 6 sadly.

In my own lifetime as a Gooner, Saliba is right up there.

I love big Willy. But it's sentences like the highlighted one that make me adamant the only thing you should be posting for the immediate future are posts like the one below.