I mean it seems pretty clear Arsenal would like to bin off Saliba. God knows why but that seems to be the shape of things.
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Is Saliba just ostracised from the club because Mikel doesnât like him or is it Arsenal as a whole?
If that is the case, which personally I refuse to believe it is, itâs one of those I would like to hear more about what went wrong.
On paper Saliba is the type of CB Arteta should love. Very technical, likes to work with the ball at his feet.
Saliba said he wasnât in great shape when he arrived at Arsenal but I still doubt thatâs enough of a reason to give up on a young CB with such potential.
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He probably has a personality that Arteta canât handle. Or he holds his fork in the wrong hand, showed up for a training session without having combed his hair, or he forgot to shave. Take your pick.
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Still so mystifying the Saliba situation. I canât believe itâs still open to speculation this far in, a little like the Ozil and Guendouzi omissions.
As @Stroller and I were discussing once, the boy may not even be that good, but how will we know unless we try?
@BigWeng_4LYFE slowly agreeing with now on just how big of a joke this club is.
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I donât think itâs true that Saliba offers the same attributes. Looking at the footage of White, his long passing and close control is a level above anyone of the players at our club. If you want to play out from the back it makes him an ideal candidate.
I mean it might be that Holding is the player to leave. We play out from the back and last year Luiz was starting every game and we looked worse when he didnât. Luiz is left and we need a defender to play out from the back. White is the ideal type for that role
Saliba is only 19 and supposedly error prone at times as youâd expect from a player his age. Arteta will be out if he can elevate us to the top 6, so he probably canât afford a young Saliba gametime every week.
As yet Saliba hasnât been excluded again, but if he is the manager must see playing him regularly too big a risk to his job. Ideally we would of given Saliba last year given it was a dead rubber season. Arteta isnât being allowed another season like last year
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White has played 160 professional games. But only one full season in the Premier League. Experience isnât the reason. Arteta doesnât like Saliba. Gabriel with less games played than White is almost an immediate starting player.
We need to sell Saliba this summer whilst there is still a hype going, because Arteta is going to stay here amd ruin him.
The Saliba situation just shows the stubbornness and arrogance of Arteta.
He has ruined a few of our best players since he became manager and ostracised several more.
It is beyond belief that the board have trusted him with another transfer window.
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Only thing I hope happens here is we sign White and have him and Saliba compete over that last CB spot. Have Holding as back up also and fuck Mari off
If we waste 40m on Ben White then Edu should be fired.
There is just no excuse for that kind of poor planning.
Itâs clear Arteta doesnât like Saliba or trust a player that young to play in defense. A real club with a strong DoF would tell Arteta to gtfo if he asked for more money at CB or at the very least tell him that he could have Ben White at 40m but thereâs no more money available for RB and midfield.
This club is just absolutely adrift right now.
We went from
Mertesacker and Kos
Kos, Mustafi, Holding and Chambers
Kos, Mustafi, Holding and Sokratis
Then Kos leaves and our recruitment strategy goes absolutely off the rails. I appreciate that the club were put in a weird position which saw the club captain force his way out, but surely they would have known he was unhappy and should have made arrangements to address that situation before he refused to travel on the preseason tour.
So we do Kia a solid and bring in his guy on a lot of money. We also sign Saliba which I was in favor of even with the stipulation that heâd have to stay in France for one more year. Thatâs how smart clubs operate. Liverpool does it, Chelsea does it and looking at continental Europe, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern do it.
Then we sign Gabriel before the 20-21 season after bringing in Mari on a fishy looking loan-which-wasnât-really-a-loan-to-juke-the-stats type deal. I fully expected both Chambers and Holding to be sold. But Arteta has no clue what his best back four is. We sign Holding to a new deal instead of loaning him in January '21, we end up paying Mustafi and Sokratis to leave, we let Luizâs contract expire and end the season with Chambers playing at right back!
People keep saying that we need experience on the backline to replace Luiz but IDK that Ben White fits that bill. He looks like another project, another expensive project. If Arteta doesnât like Saliba, tough shit. Heâs the coach, be a better coach. Find a use for him for one season and if itâs not working after he plays meaningful minutes, then we can cut our losses. But this whole idea that weâre going to spend another 40m on a CB after buying Gabriel, after buying Mari and after buying Saliba is just insane.
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What if Ben White is the next Maldini/Baressi though?
How many CBâs have we been through in the last couple of seasons?
Weâre like a non stop conveyer belt of central defenders, yet none of them are top quality, despite spending millions on them in transfer fees and wages.
You would have thought by the law of averages that Arteta would have found a CB pairing that worked, with the amount of time and investment heâs had.
When will the club learn that itâs not the CBâs that are lacking in quality?
Itâs the idiot who keeps changing them.
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TBH they probably are lacking quality. I guarantee most of the partnerships we have would be uninspiring to our fans. Signings loads of shit defenders doesnât mean you have a good pairing
Really understated aspect of this whole rumour tbh. Youâve got to be able to work with what you already have first.
I have no clue how anybody in senior management can wave through this kind of reckless planning. Why are unproven people receiving this level of backing!?
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Exactly.
Weâve bought Sokratis, Gabriel, Mari, Saliba, Luiz, etc, in recent seasons so, if we do buy White, it means we will have spent around 150m on CBâs and none of them could be described as more than adequate.
People criticise Liverpool for spending 80m on VVD but they have a world class CB.
We spend nearly double that and way more on wages, then either loan them out, donât play them or sell them.
Either spend what it takes to get the best or just make do with the hundred CBâs weâve already got at the club.
Itâs astonishing that our board keep giving a proven failure and novice manager like Arteta more money to waste in every transfer window on players he doesnât use.
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He isnât.
But if the club really believe that, then they need to sell Saliba this summer and hope to God theyâre right.
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No if Arteta doesnât like Saliba thatâs his right as manager to call.
Also if itâs disciplinary and we donât know if it is that makes the situation different.
Bottom line itâs on him. If the results donât improve itâs his job.
Canât be forced to play players by others. Donât have to agree with his selection but itâs surely his team too pick.
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I think this thread is getting way too much attentionâŚthis is a pretty unconfirmed rumour and canât see us prioritising a new CB over midfield additions atmâŚSaliba is going to get his chance next season
Tbf itâs come from Orny who is widely seen as the clubs mouthpiece for the past few years. I think itâs unlikely too but that is definitely going to attract attention.
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Feels like ever since he left the BBC his line of communications havenât been as clear. There is a train of thought that he lost his contacts when Wenger and Gazidis fucked off and the subsequent reshuffle that followed.
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