Mikel Arteta Makes William Saliba Admission

Just like he had done with Mesut Ozil, Mikel Arteta has shown remorse.

The decision to leave William Saliba out of the Arsenal Europa League squad and hand him a grand total of zero competitive minutes following his £27m move has been met with a mixed response.

The recruitment drive has been criticised for spending so heavily on a teenager who has been deemed not ready for English football, the decision to then resist sending him out on loan in pursuit of regular minutes received scorn, as did the omission from the squad to play European football.

At this point of the season, supporters were expecting to see Gabriel Magalhaes and Saliba stake their claim as Arsenal’s second coming of Sol Campbell and Kolo Toure. A new partnership that would forge the backbone of Arteta’s revolution.

He’s played 45 senior minutes against MK Dons, that’s it.

It appears progression has been made though, with Arteta even going as far as to state that he may well have made a mistake in excluding him from the Europa League group. He said, via the Evening Standard:

"“He’s in a much better place. He’s feeling a lot more confident around the place, his language is improving and he’s starting to understand much better what we’re doing physically.“He’s played a few games, with the Under-23s, which he needed because he didn’t play any football in the last seven or eight months. Things are progressively getting better and better.“I feel really bad for William Saliba. Because we had so many central defenders we decided to leave him out of the squad, which was really hurtful for me to do.”"

Is this an admission of an error of judgement? It does sound a bit like that, almost as if he’s seen him develop at a rate faster than he anticipated, to the point where he could be of benefit to the Arsenal squad this season. The mounting injuries at the back will have fast-tracked such sentiments.

What’s also noteworthy is the indication that his absence from the matchday squads is not solely football related. It’s known that he suffered a close family bereavement not long ago, but the impact of that can never be fully judged.

For any young foreign footballer moving to a new country, with a different culture, language, style of play and teammates, the integration is always challenging. But for a young man who suffered such great tragedy, all those other elements become even tougher.

Protecting your players, particularly centre-backs, who are the most fallible in the current mould of the sport, is vital to ensuring their careers are as fruitful as can be. Saliba will benefit greatly from this careful micro-management by Arteta, whether it takes more weeks, months or a full season.

Asking for patience becomes a frequent occurence in the early stages of a manager’s career – as we’ve seen with Arteta – but his decision on this occasion stretches beyond football matters.