We were promised that William Saliba would be the next puzzle piece for Arsenal’s future.
We pored over St Etienne’s results when Saliba was sent back on loan to the French club after completing his £27m move to Arsenal. We saw stats that revealed an incredible tackling success rate and zero bookings. We were so excited to have him back in our ranks to build what potentially could be an impregnable backline alongside Gabriel Magalhaes.
Instead, it has not worked out at all – and Saliba is out in the cold.
The young Frenchman is struggling to adapt and a death in his family has not helped him, A move back to St Etienne would have suited all parties but negotiations ended acrimoniously and Arsenal had to scramble to find a suitable loan move in the Championship in the last days of the window – something that failed to materialise.
We have a glut of defenders, so it was no surprise that Saliba was left out of squads as there was no room for the promising but raw Saliba. But this would have seemed common sense if Saliba was then sent on loan. Instead, we have a player unable to make the next step in his career.
Saliba is essentially in stasis. Not ready for the Premier League, but unable to gain the experience he needs to transform his talent into genuine experience.
Mikel Arteta commented on Saliba recently and explained it far better when interviewed by Sky Sports;
“I’m fed up with the situation because, as you could see, we tried to find a way in the last few days to give him some football. I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him and send him on loan to Saint-Etienne. For many reasons, that didn’t happen – he didn’t have that transition year and he needs to go through that. At the moment, with the amount of central defenders we have in the team, we had to leave him out of the squad, which is painful. Now we have some injuries and we could have used him but this is part of the profession.”
Arteta added that a loan move in January could be a possibility for Saliba, saying: “We certainly tried in the last few days of the transfer window to find the right club but we could not.
“We will review the situation in the next few weeks and sit down with him and see what is the best thing to do. But it will depend on him and other players’ situations as well.”
Saliba’s career is on hold until January – let’s hope he gets the loan move he needs – and we need – for him to progress.