Speaking on his YouTube channel, Rio Ferdinand has been discussing William Saliba after he made his long-awaited Arsenal debut.
The French defender finally played his first competitive game for Arsenal over the weekend, three years after signing for the club, and he was tremendous against Palace.
Saliba was a brick wall at centre-back, he was the coolest player in Selhurst Park and he looked every bit a £30m defender.
Ferdinand was impressed by Saliba, describing him as ‘phenomenal’, but the pundit also reserved praise for how Arsenal have handled the defender with his various loan spells, stating that he’d been humbled by his moves to Nice and Marseille.
What’s been said?
Ferdinand discussed Saliba’s journey to this point.
“I don’t know if he needed it, but I think that when he went away it humbled him. He came to Arsenal and you expect to play. He was talked about as being that good. They said ‘no, go away and get some experience’ he was the Young Player of the Year in Ligue 1 last season and was phenomenal in that sense,” Ferdinand said.
“He came back and said he’s not playing at right-back, he stuck Ben White at right-back. Saliba comes back and it takes a personality and a character to come in and say ‘right, I’m here’. But you have to reseve judgement on these players, you can’t judge them on one game.”
No room for ego
Saliba may well look back on his two loan moves away from Arsenal as the best thing to ever happen to him.
Arriving as a 19-year-old for £30m in 2019, Saliba easily could have believed his own hype and developed a massive ego if he’d been thrust into the first-team, but as Ferdinand says, his loan moves may have humbled him.
It’s a stark contrast between how someone like Saliba has been handled and how someone like Matteo Guendouzi was handled – only one of those players will go on to become an Arsenal star now, and it may be due to the fact Saliba has been through this humbling process and forced to fight for his spot.
Saliba looks ready to take the Premier League by storm this season, but it’s not been an easy journey to this point.
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
