Need to pay extra for fucking him about for 2 years.
Imagine fobbing him off to get the pleasure of Shkodran Mustafi and Holding instead, turfing him to Ligue 1.
Need to pay what’s due for that. Club should be fined for that as a crime to football - if that fine takes the form of higher wages to Saliba then that’s fine by me
No matter what propaganda I am replied to about him not being ready or whatever. Spare me the finest from Goebbellog
That first year on loan was allegedly part of the initial deal. That was never the problem, big clubs do that stuff all the time. It was the other loans that were ridiculous.
Even then there’s an argument to say he’s come back the player he is, partly because of those loans. I really don’t get the big deal about those tbh.
He’ll sign and it’ll be ridiculous wages.
I think we’d all be happy offering him 200k/w.
But let’s say he wants 300k/w. That’s a difference of £5m a year.
Realistically we keep him for 3 more years. That’s £15m extra in salary. But we retain his transfer value and can sell him for £90-100m in 2026.
The alternative is that we lowball his contract. We then are forced to sell this summer with a year left on his contract. We could get maybe £50m for him right now?
Securing him to a long term contract even if we pay him over the odds is still the right decision. And what are we going to do with £50m? There is nobody out there as good as Saliba who we could realistically buy.
Give the lad what he wants. He’s the best young CB in the world with the potential to be the best CB outright in a few years time. He’s a generational talent who is worth the massive contract. Saka, Martinelli and Saliba are the face and spine of this team imo. We need them to stay here for years.
Sunsport
Depends how that’s structured. If it’s 200k pw fixed, he can fuck right off and leave, he’s not even been our 3rd best defender this season, let alone best defender in the league as some teams of the season suggest.
Couldn’t give a fuck about his potential. If we start paying players by potential then we might as well start handing out 300+k pw contracts to everyone in the team.
He was always that player. I don’t know that additional time in Ligue 1 really helped all that much.
Gabriel somehow hasn’t garnered a fraction of compliments his performances deserved and also how good an influence on Saliba he was. White was our best defender for consistency and a ready made solution should we decide to sell here.
I’m not as familiar with his time at Nice and Marseille. Watched very little of that, I did see him at Saint Etienne and the dude was still very raw.
Dude was 19 when he arrived. How many 19 year old centre backs are playing consistently for top clubs?
Ans btw, how is his Saint Etienne buddy doing? Had a “great” first season(even though he was very inconsistent and relied a lot on Evans).
He suffered that awful injury, he’s never been the same since. He was poor for Leicester at the end, poor at Chelsea, people don’t even rate him that highly anymore and he’s also 22.
Does Saliba have high potential, for sure. But football isn’t linear, and he wouldn’t be the first wonderkid failing to realize that potential.
And if his injury is recurring (we have been told basically nothing about it) we will be stuck with a player on £300k/week with no resale value…I think this is one of those where we have to trust the club/Edu/Arteta
This is how I see it. Saliba deserves a new deal, sure.
But Gabriel and White have actually been better throughout the season. Gabriel is regarded as one of the leaders within the dressing room.
If the club is gonna hand Saliba a massive contract, they better expect Gabriel and White to ask the club for a similar pay rise too.
The issue is £300k puts him among the highest paid CBs ever. It would certainly put him amongst the top 6-7 ever you’d have to imagine.
If his wage demand is something like a £200k then that would put him at not far off double what Ben White earns and about 4 times more than Gabriel is on (although I’m not sure if he signed a new deal).
I support paying a big wage to Saliba but there has to be a degree of balance here. You can’t lose control of your finances in order to pay someone who is good now and you reckon might be really good. His performances don’t warrant a pay bump as high as some are suggesting
We’ll extend his contract then sell him to PSG for big bucks in the near future.
Reckon I might mute this thread and unmute it once he signs on. Not sure I can stomach reading the same melodrama until then
He’s a great CB that is worthy of a bump in pay. Not a ridiculous amount that it’s out of proportion to the other guys in the team.
I think Arteta has been great in identifying defenders based on what he has brought to the club so far. White, Tomi and Zinchenko have been successful for OUR system. If Big Will decides that we aren’t offering him enough, I will rest easy that we can identify a suitable alternative.
We’re not reliant on individuals running this team anymore. We are more of a collective and have a system in place that makes us stronger than that of a single player’s talent alone. There has to be a level of respect from both parties in these negotiations though.
I’m almost positive he did sign a new deal. You’d have to imagine White isn’t far off from a new deal as well.
If I’m Saliba’s agent, of course I’d be asking for insane amounts of money. If Arsenal pay it, great. If they meet in the “middle” and wind up paying him the same as what Saka or Jesus make, great. If Arsenal don’t pay it, I’d start backchanneling with PSG who still have more money than sense right away and start arguing to my client that he’s very close to a Bosman so why not just test the waters and see what offers roll in.
For what it’s worth I think we’ll sign him, but on a shorter deal.
I’m aware of the “balance factor”, but eventually, in the end… If you want to have a top team you have to pay top money, you can’t evade that.
It’s just, the timing of his contract makes everything look a bit awkward, in terms of comparing his wages to some other players…
But in the end, if you want to compete for the top top titles, you wont be able to do that for too long (more than a season) with half of your team (starting 11) being on around 100k pw. Every one of them will demand 200k+ when they get their chance. Just as Saliba does atm.
I guess that’s the sum we’re talking about… If he demands 300k, yeah, that’s a bit optimistic 
does anybody actually know how much Saliba/his agent is asking for?
we are all just guessing here…
maybe he is just asking for 200k but the clubs tries to lowball him??
No one really knows. It is all just speculation. However, I still come back to the point that if he wants to be a starter and get an increase in wages, we remain his best option. I think he will sign a new contract.
The Sun is reporting that we have offered to triple his wages to £120K p/w. Offer sounds about right to me. Maybe some room to go up a bit but need to be mindful of our other defenders and the current wage structure.