Arsenal: William Saliba doesn’t have to start perfect

Arsenal’s defense will get another jolt next summer when William Saliba arrives, but he doesn’t need to be perfect from the first step.

There’s so much talk about Arsenal‘s defense lately because of all the returns from injury, but if we zoom out even further than that, we’ll all be happy to remember that William Saliba is set to join the club next summer, at which point this defense will have gotten even younger and, ideally, we can start cutting some dead weight.

Saliba has been spending time at London Colney getting sized up, and while his physical prowess has never been in question, the club are apparently concerned over a couple of things. Which is perfectly fine. The news even mentioned that these aren’t big concerns, just regular-sized concerns.

Seeing as how he is 18-years-old, concerns are about as expected as pimples. If you have no concerns over an 18-year-old player, than you need someone with a sharper eye to assess that player.

No one expects Saliba to be perfect from the moment he takes to the pitch at the Emirates. At least, no one should.

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And the best part is, we don’t need him to be. You can see how this defense is shaping up this year. If all goes according to plan, we will have Rob Holding and Calum Chambers established in the center of this defense by the year’s end, though hopefully long before.

David Luiz and Sokratis are, and always have been place holders. As soon as they can be done away with, they will be. Which will hopefully hold true with Luiz too, as he appears to be an Emery favorite.

Still, when Saliba hits the first team, he will have at least Chambers and Holding to compete with, and that doesn’t even take into account Dinos Mavropanos, who is a tremendously talented young defender who just can’t stay healthy.

Which means that Saliba could potentially be the fourth young centerback in the squad come this summer, and that’s assuming that Zech Medley doesn’t make any headway, or that we don’t make any additional signings in the coming transfer windows.

Saliba is exciting for his physical prowess alone. That’s all we need to know right now. Wherever he develops from there is going to be thrilling, but it’s all a process, and it will be for as long as necessary.

In the meantime, give me that physical prowess, but that’s the magic word right now.