Arsenal’s smart Rob Holding move could pay off with William Saliba

Arsenal Can Sell Rob Holding With William Saliba Being Homegrown

Naturally, the ideal scenario would have been that Saliba was good enough in the manager’s eyes that he would have nailed down his place in the heart of defence and there wouldn’t need to be a £50m outlay on White.

That ship has sailed.

While he will get his pre-season this term, if he goes out and spends 12 months elsewhere but is still registered in the club’s squad – sides are are also entitled to register an unlimited number of players under the age of 21 – when he then returns he will have been on Arsenal’s books for three years before turning 21 which means he will class as homegrown.

So 12 months down the line, Arsenal will have Saliba with another season of football under his belt, wherever that may be, and Holding who will be 26, English, in his prime and with a greater valuation.

Is it a lot to assume that Arsenal are plotting with a view to bringing a homegrown Saliba into the side for 2022/23 and then selling Holding that same summer for a fair amount of money? Maybe so, but it would be a smart move to balance out what has been a poorly handled career so far for Saliba.

There was talk this summer of Everton wanting Holding but him being valued at £30m, which is quite astounding and frankly ridiculous, but what is for certain is that he will have suitors in the division who are after a solid low-block centre-back with Premier League experience who classes as homegrown.

While ideally it wouldn’t have played out this way and Saliba would have had 38 Premier League games under his belt heading into his second campaign with Arsenal, the situation has every chance of leaning this way. If so, it demonstrates a bit of strategy from the Gunners’ part even if the original plan may have dug them a hole in the first place.