Arsenal: Mikel Arteta’s growing William Saliba mistake

William Saliba is a young centre-back that continue to improve and impress each year. He’s done so, however, at outfits other than Arsenal, having been loaned out once again for what seems like the umpteenth consecutive campaign.

To put it bluntly, I do not understand why he did not get his chance in Mikel Arteta’s squad this season. While it was positive to get Ben White from Brighton to bolster that backline alongside Gabriel Magalhaes, nobody can legitimately contest the idea that he’s no better than Sead Kolasinac, Pablo Mari, Rob Holding or Calum Chambers.

Whether at St. Etienne, OGC Nice, or now Marseille for Saliba, he has improved noticeably with each season. While still so young, the Frenchman has gathered a solid amount of experience across this time and surely could positively contribute to a club full of young players and abject defenders.

This huge, physically imposing 20-year-old must have been greater help in the early weeks where Ben White and Gabriel have missed time? Granted, the pair’s respective absences have come following Saliba’s move, but what can be said about the rest?

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Mikel Arteta made a mistake loaning out William Saliba as Arsenal put in another miserable defensive performance in 5-0 defeat to Manchester City

Instead, Arteta has attempted to retain his job for an additional season without his services, preferring to give time to Holding, Chambers, and now Kolasinac, instead. Mari, one of his acquisitions, was dropped in place of the Bosnian against Manchester City, who the club are actively trying to remove from the squad via a contract cancellation. Indeed.

What is further troubling, though, is that it has been teased every year that next season might finally be the year when we let Saliba have a real go at it with Arsenal in the Premier League.

A young, powerful, and hungry center-back should be in the hunt for minutes at the Emirates, and whether that was only in cup ties or not, on quality alone there is no excuse for a lack of talent ID when he is deemed inferior to those who’ve been nothing short of woeful so far this season.

There is no question that it is good to let young players go out and play regular minutes at a competitive level. Why that isn’t Arsenal surely can’t be ability related. What don’t we know?

Yet, with this understood, there is something to be said about letting your young players have a go at it after they’ve put in their due diligence. Arsenal under Arteta utilizes and highly values many young players, from Emile Smith Rowe, Bukayo Saka, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Eddie Nketiah and Folarin Balogun, to name a few. They’ve had their chances. Saliba’s are nowhere to be found.

Perhaps Saliba is not Arteta’s kind of player, but surely a boss with such a small CV, relatively speaking, should be able to figure out how to utilize strength, size, and talent on the pitch?

Perhaps in a year he may be deemed ‘ready’, whether Arteta remains at Arsenal or not. While it is cynical to think that the Gunners will never use their young talent in symphony with Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes in the center of the backline, it gets tiring to suspect that, while we are not defensively great, the players we continue to loan out are not any better than a Mari or company.

One can only hope, from the outside looking in, that Arsenal find success bolstering our own team and not some other club that had the patience and timing to make it all happen properly.

Kolasinac playing ahead of Mari while Saliba is out on loan. Try reading that sentence again to see if it makes sense.