William Saliba will be at Arsenal for the 2020-21 campaign.
Despite a lack of football and clarification on the transfer window, Arsenal continue to be linked with a lot of players.
Interestingly, the vast majority of players are centre-backs and it seems like that’s a real area of concern for Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
The likes of Dayot Upamecano and Samuel Umtiti have been linked with Arsenal, as well as some lesser names like Axel Disasi.
Arteta already has a ridiculous number of centre-back options as of right now but, without being disparaging, they’re not exactly good options – Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz and Sokratis Papastathopoulos are their best available options, for example.
But it’s important that the Spanish coach does get one or two established defenders in. Otherwise, there’s so much unfair pressure on William Saliba.
The Saint Etienne loanee officially joined Arsenal last summer in a £27 million, before returning to the Ligue 1 club on a season-long loan.
He’s going to be coming back to North London with a lot of expectation on him, and the truth is that it isn’t fair.
We’re talking about a 19-year-old defender. It doesn’t matter if he’s highly rated, or the next Virgil van Dijk. The fact of the matter is that he’s a teenager and Arteta has a responsibility to protect him.
And the best way to do that is to sign a tried-and-tested defender to play alongside the youngster next term. As mentioned, Arsenal already have tried-and-tested defenders, but their calamitous style means that bizarrely, Saliba will be the one under pressure to play well if he’s paired with a Mustafi or a Luiz.
At his age, and at this stage of his development, he doesn’t need the responsibility of transforming the North Londoners’ defence. It has to be a group effort, but the buzz around him suggests that all eyes will be on him from day one of next season and it’s an unfair burden.
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