Speaking during his unveiling press conference William Saliba has shared Mikel Arteta’s immediate snap judgement on the Frenchman when he returned to Arsenal this summer.
Saliba, of course, spent the 2019/20 season out on loan at St Etienne, so he didn’t have a chance to work with Arteta at all last season, and upon his return, Areta had already made a judgement on him.
Indeed, the Arsenal manager immediately decided that Saliba was not ready to play first-team football.
“As soon as they came back from holidays, we quickly had the first friendly matches where I lacked rhythm and was a bit insufficient physically,” Saliba said.
“The coach immediately told me that I was not ready. I would have at least liked to have a chance to rediscover my rhythm. But this is football, it’s like that.”
This seems a little harsh from Arteta, doesn’t it?
Saliba is a £27 million footballer who’d suffered with injuries over the past year, and Arteta immediately told him that he wasn’t ready to play for Arsenal.
Of course, no Arsenal fan needs reminding just how poor the Gunners have been at the start of this season, so it’s hard to believe that Saliba wasn’t ready to make a slight contribution to a team that are struggling to get into the top half of the table.
The defender joins Nice with a massive point to prove, and if he starts to show what he’s about, we’re sure that Arteta will quickly change his mind here.
It remains to be seen whether or not the 19-year-old will get up to speed at Nice, but we can only hope that he’s able to begin fulfilling his potential in 2021.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
