Arsenal: Should William Saliba be worried about his future?

William Saliba, a name that evokes all the wrong feelings. Two years on from joining Arsenal and everything supporters know of the centre-back is from what he’s achieved elsewhere. That’s not right.

Everything that has happened for Saliba in north London has been dealt with poorly. Everything good that has happened for Saliba has been outside of London.

Both his loan spells in France since securing his signature in July 2019 have been great periods for the Frenchman. His initial loan back to St Etienne was one Arsenal couldn’t shirk. The Ligue 1 side would only sanction his sale if such an agreement was made and in the end his new side caved and decided 12 more months of regular football would do him good. David Luiz joined a few weeks after.

A year later and the hype returned. Saliba helped guide St Etienne to the 2020 Coupe de France final and avoid Ligue 1 relegation, despite missing out on much of the season through injury. Let’s now skip ahead and resist repeating the same infuriating timeline of events we all know very well. All the mistakes, bizarre decisions and damaging calls.

Should William Saliba be worried about his Arsenal future based on centre-back transfer pursuits and Mikel Arteta’s comments?

An excellent six months in the south of France have brought Saliba to this point. Luiz is gone and there is a spot up for grabs in the team. Mikel Arteta wants to rebuild his entire squad, focus on the youthful core and make the right additions around them. Where better to start that than with Saliba?

It doesn’t feel that way.

Starting with the work being done this summer, Arsenal are heavily pursuing another right centre-back to join the club. With Saliba returning full of confidence – almost an arrogance that transpires in his play to great effect – this may not fill him up with excitement.

Losing the experience of Luiz and the mentoring impact he has on the youngsters, anyone at 20 years old without a minute of Premier League football will, however understand the need for experience. Another addition could help Saliba.

Yet seeing Arsenal linked with players of a similar age bracket, Edmond Tapsoba and Jules Kounde, who will both cost upwards of £50m – not to mention are totally unobtainable – is hardly the reassuring news Saliba would want to hear upon his long-awaited return to London Colney.

It’s worrying for him and his future at Arsenal, thus one can only imagine how he will feel about it. Both are exceptional talents and would improve most squads in Europe, but for someone like Saliba who won’t have European football next season to earn valuable minutes, it does beg the question.

Unfortunately, that isn’t the only aspect that won’t reassure him.

Continued…

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?