Amen.
I think it was beyond comprehension for some folks that Arsenal would decide what would happen to an Arsenal player with 2 years left on his Arsenal contract.
Marseille coming in with some dog shit broke ass bitch offer wasn’t going to do anything 
Will displace White in a fair (not rigged) competetion
This is a good sign.
Koulibaly being linked to Chelsea, 1 yr left on his deal looking for a payday. CB market is looking good recently
Why do you not like our defenders? Lol. Last week you said Ake could replace Gabriel and now Saliba is better than White 
I like all of our current backline, much more likeable than twats like Luiz, Sokratis and Mustafi who were bad and didn’t give a toss about it.
Its very solid and competent backline for an EL level club but I just don’t think any of them will be elite in their position in the coming years.
White is currently better than Saliba and he is a undisputed starter with a yr under his belt with Arteta but Saliba’s celling is much higher, imo
I think White is still young in defender years. We havent seen Saliba in the PL yet and Gabriel has potential just needs to add a bit of maturity. With the 3 of them our backline can be good enough to compete with top teams (caveat being they all need to mature and grow still-but we need that really as a team)
We’ll see how Saliba pans out but I’m just excited to potentially have three very good young CBs on the team. And all three seem good enough on the ball to play a possession-heavy style and athletic enough to do a lot of aggressive high line defending.
Good for who? 
Just had a goal saving tackle/interception against Croatia. Looking good. Seems he’s put on some muscle over the last year, he’ll need it when he comes to the PL.
Good for us. If we wanted to move him on we would be probably paying them or some shit. 
I dont put too much stock in defensive stats as they can be so system/role dependent but its interesting how similar Saliba and White are on some of these metrics.
Despite being huge, Saliba’s biggest statistical weakness is aerial duels and he always ends up very strong in all the progressive passing and carrying metrics…which is basically the Ben White statistical profile as well.
All in all this seems like a good thing as it suggests that once Saliba gets comfortable in the tactical system they can rotate without too much disruption.
I like Ben White but his signing sure does feel like a waste of funds. Said money could/should have been put to signing a centre-mid last year.
You would have have had Holding all season in White’s position?
Yeh that’s a little crazy, we paid up for White sure but he’s one I’m really grateful to have at the club for the next I don’t know how many years.
People thinking that Saliba is going to come in and immediately displace the White and Gab partnership have been snorting too much Twitter
Don’t forget about Pablo Mari!
People who view Saliba’s impressive ball playing stats in Ligue 1 and think they would translate easily in the PL are also mistaken.
There’s a considerable gulf in quality between the 2 leagues and he won’t be playing in the same system that Marseille used.
Saliba would have been starting alongside Gabriel for me. Holding as back-up.
No chance. Ben White is clearly an Arteta favourite ;).
Didn’t Gabriel have impressive defensive stats and did it not translate ‘easily’ to the PL?
Yep.
Played every single game before his injury, even the cup games. Arteta considers him essential in his system and rightly so imo.
I’m with you… no complaints about White signing other than opportunity cost… if Willie is as good as advertised and could have slotted in last season. TBF its not like our defense was top 4 material anyway (yes, this is more complicated proposition when you factor in midfielders, etc., but no one can claim we played open, attacking football either)…
We had the 8th best goals against, basically comparable to Crystal Palace and West Ham… we were miles away from City, Pool, and even Chelsea. In terms of xGA, similar story, 7th behind the likes of BHA and Spurs (and also miles away from the top 3)…
Feels like optimal move last summer might have been stick with big Willy and get top CM… anyway, it is not awful and I like White and I’m looking forward to 3 CB battling it out over an entire campaign with lots of games, but like you said, it is Gabby and White as clear 1 and 2.