Arsenal: Should William Saliba be worried about his future?

Mikel Arteta Hasn’t Exactly Welcomed William Saliba

There is no knowing what goes on behind the scenes at Arsenal, the discussions held in Arteta’s office or what the manager says to Saliba on the training ground. Everything in that regard can only be speculated.

Arteta has made mistakes with the 20-year-old though, the kind that you wouldn’t blame Saliba for feeling downbeat over. The boss admitted that there were four or five months poorly used for the defender’s development, those coming in the form a loan move elsewhere unable to be sanctioned pre-season and the decision to omit him from the Europa League squad, not to mention the Premier League group.

Playing with the reserves did little for him other than to improve his English. What’s more concerning is how Arteta speaks of Saliba in the press. By now everyone knows that Arteta can be somewhat elusive during his press conferences, but after a superb six months at Nice, the way he spoke of him will have done little for the player’s self belief.

"“You will see in the summer, the possible replacement,” he said in mid-May, via football.london. “William is our player for sure and that’s the decision we’re going to be taking soon. When we finish the season we will sit down and discuss the roles of every member in our squad and how they can fulfil that role. “He’s our player so he’ll be back here for sure. After that, we will make a decision based on an agreement of the role each player is going to have in our squad.”"

Hardly the ‘welcome back with open arms’ response. No mention of his performances in Ligue 1 either. It’s growing tougher to know whether he believes in his ability. Is it based all on talent, though? If you’re looking at purely the technical side of things, he’s worthy of a place in this team. If you’re looking at the fact he cost £27m, there are also few signs that investment is going to get his chance to shine.

Again, Arteta can be a blend of candid and dismissive speaking to the press. It can be hard to decipher and we also don’t know the conversations taking place in the background. But if you’re Saliba you will question what the future has in store for you.

Marseille have already inquired about taking him on loan next season and Nice would like a repeat spell, and from the noises coming out of Arsenal those won’t happen. Fans so desperately want to see him, it question is whether Arteta will entrust his last chance in charge of the club with him.

The club are said to have faith in him (Edu has been more outspoken about this than Arteta), but will Saliba have faith in the club?