Arsenal are ready to sanction another loan move for William Saliba amidst concerns he needs regular game time this season to aid his development.
Signed from Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2019 for £27 million, the centre-back was loaned back to the Ligue 1 club to gain further first team experience. While he impressed when fit, his season was pockmarked by injuries and then cut short in March by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Despite his inexperience, Saliba was tipped to compete for a first team place this year. Indeed, Arsenal made a point of recalling him from his loan in July – a decision that cost the defender an appearance in the Coupe de France final – and he went on to feature a couple of times in our stunted pre-season. It was even predicted he might start our opening Premier League game against Fulham but a senior debut hasn’t yet materialised.
In fairness, Arsenal are overloaded with centre-backs at the moment. We’ve retained David Luiz, recruited Brazilian Gabriel Magalhães, opted against loaning out Rob Holding and have Shkodran Mustafi, Calum Chambers and Pablo Mari all closing in on a return to fitness. Sokratis is also still on the books although he could leave before the transfer window closes on Monday.
Breaking | Rennes are in active talks to sign William Saliba on loan from Arsenal, according to @SimoneRovera & confirmed by Ouest-France. More follows tomorrow.
— Get French Football News (@GFFN) October 1, 2020
According to various reports, French side Rennes are in pole-position to sign Saliba. Now that word is out, it wouldn’t be surprising if a few other clubs in his home country pick up the phone.
Asked about Saliba’s absence from last night’s Carabao Cup game with Liverpool, Arteta said: “He had a year last year where Arsenal loaned him to St Etienne and that was a transition year for him.
“For many reasons, that wasn’t the transition year that he needed because he had a lot of injuries, some personal injuries and also with COVID-19 and the French league getting cancelled, he didn’t have that year.
“He needs that year of transition and we are trying to make the right decisions for him to give him the best transitional year for him to have the player we want in our future.”
It’s all coming up Mustafi!
Anything but that …
HE doesn’t need to leave England! Also I honestly don’t think he needs to leave AT ALL since we have a huge schedule we’re still in 4 competitions with long term injuries at the back and players coming back they won’t be at optimum form right of the gate why do we sign a Player for 4 yrs and he spends 2yrs on loan???????? does that make any sense to anyone?????
I think there’s something else going on with him theyre not telling us! because this is just stupid
You can forget about top four then – for the same reason, for the fifth year running.
Mustafi shipping precious Premiership points with his idiocy.
Ridiculous loaning him back to the French league again. We might have numbers in defence, but quality is the issue and Saliba was meant to be one of the answers.
We really do have recruitment problems.
Many EPL teams could use him. Fulham could give a double combo Chambers and Saliba move.
Chambers could become a Fulham legend, in midfield. A la Scott Parker (Only suggestion I’m going by here is James On the arsecast. A lot ehh ??)
Imagine spending 30m on a player and sending him on loan for first 2 years. In our situation that is 30m wasted.
Not only that, but back in France. Even Arteta states key to his development is adapting to the English game. WTF is going on here?! This is insanity on the levels only Arsenal can muster.
Exactly this. If he needs a loan send him to Brentford or Palace etc where he can continue adapting to life in England ( and London ) at least! Sending him back to France would be just bizarre. This makes little sense to me 🙁
Bayern signed Gnabry and loaned him to Bremen then Hoffenheim. Don’t start with Bremen as we all know it was Bayern
THEY “LOANED” HIM IN GERMANY (their league – and he’s German)!!
Please describe how you expect him to adapt to the language and football (culture, pace of game, coaching, etc.) in England when he is back in France on loan? I cannot see how this benefits Arsenal in any way.
Perhaps his English isn’t ready either. Loaning him to an English team would then be an additional burden to him.
All of this makes me think his potential must be sky high for Arsenal to commit so much resources to a long term project, especially when there are other pressing issues.
Or the scary alternative is, Arsenal are/were not good at prioritizing, etc. 🙁
Easy answer is don’t fucking loan him anywhere! Play him in some cup games, don’t over expose him, get him used to the team, his teammates, his coaches, life in North London, the language.
At the end of the day you’d imagine these are experts doing their jobs. They must have weighed up all options and come up with France.
If this kid wasn’t ready to play in the cup games having arrived very early in the summer then those who see him everyday know what’s best. Before the opening game we expected him to start. What makes you think he’s ready to start at say Fulham or Newcastle? A season at Renes would be much better than Burnley U23
If this kid isn’t ready for cup games after training for the whole summer with us then why did we drop 27M quid on him? It’s carabaramickeymouse and maybe some Europa cup games we are talking here.
And what do Newcastle or Fulham or even Burnley u/23s have to do with anything? Loaning him anywhere is madness. Loaning him back to France is basically shooting ourselves in the foot.
This isn’t brain surgery, it’s football. The football “experts” get it wrong all the time. This is a very bizarre decision, and we don’t really have a lot of competent defenders, so the numbers don’t really matter. Saliba looked very good vs MK Dons. He looked disinterested in the U23 game last week, probably because he’s being pushed to the side. This kid grew up watching Arsenal, we should keep him close to the team and make room for him where possible. Why pay all that money to lose another year of his contract to a loan?
If the rumours are true, he needs game time too, which he isn’t getting via cup games because the draw hasn’t been kind to us, with serious opponents like Leicester, Liverpool, City. Arteta probably takes these fixtures seriously, and/or the risk to the confidence of Saliba too great.
Loaning him for two years is a bigger risk on his confidence. The coach you talked to before signing was sacked and the new one hasn’t been playing you and sending you back to your previous team.
Eternal… I’m afraid that’s nonsense. Confidence is built by playing regularly, and putting in good performances. He’s not going to get that at Arsenal. The question is whether we should have spent all that money on him 2 years ago. Looking at the Pepe and Cedric transfers, you wonder if Saliba’s price tag is any reflection of his quality. I’m willing to trust the people who have watched him train for the last 6 months to make the decision on what’s best for him. Or at least I trust them more than some dude shouting in the comment section who… Read more »
Europa League draw has been very kind. Those are 6 matches he should be able to play in.
That really is a case of optimistic over reality.
More like they’ve rumbled this was another Sanllehi dodgy deal.
Tbf given our recent transfer history, we could have easily wasted that £27m on a mid career player without much room for improvement – eg a slightly cheaper Mustafi, or a Lucas Perez + Elneny, for example We’d made a habit of spending significant money on players with only midtable / europa league potential, because we saw them as ‘undervalued’ or whatever. Just further entrenched us in EL/midtable Far better to spend it on someone who is just as likely as anyone to develop into one of the best defenders of the next generation. Every serious club needs to balance… Read more »
No one is asking to have him play every EPL game. But Carabao cup – surely. Europa cup – perfect! Maybe plays 10 first team games over the course of the season. Better than sending him back to France to feel comfortable and have no adaptation to English football. This is illogical. If this goes through that will bring us to 2021 with Saliba being 20 with still ZERO experience in England and only 3 years left on his contract. Let say he then has an “English” adaption year until 2022 where he plays maybe 10-15 first team games. Now… Read more »
Or he comes back with Luiz, Sokratis and Mustafi gone and immediately goes into the heart of defence with Gabriel.
You say 20 as if it’s old. 20 is insanely young for a starting CB, and if he’s a rock at the heart of defence for the next 12 years we will all be glad we developed him slowly.
One of the reasons why we have Luiz is in part due to the huge respect youngsters have for him and the amazing role he’s been doing helping them adjust. So he comes back after 1 year has no problems adapting to life in England then and is immediately a 1st team player in the EPL despite not being ready for even the mickey mouse cup the year before…if this is the current situation then I’m a little skeptical about that.
Ok, keeping him around for EL and Carabao is an acceptable solution. But how many starts will that give him? 10 maybe – mostly comparatively low intensity and against non EPL opposition. Is that really better for his development than 30+ games in a league where he is pretty good, but hasn’t yet mastered? Rennes qualified directly into the group stages of the CL too. He will learn plenty, even if he doesnt return with any real experience on how to deal with the EPL’s physicality (which perhaps it’s best not to be exposed to as a teen CB, anyway)… Read more »
So wait,
Sorry you haven’t convinced me this is in anyway beneficial.
Oh come on, you’re oversimplifying everything, except his contract situation 1.Carabao against Leicester away, Liverpool away, and Man City home? At this point in his Arsenal career, no maybe not ready. EL group stages, yeah he’s ready – but what does it teach him about English football? EL knockout stage might be something we actually need to win, so cannot guarantee him starts there. CL football for a club with relatively low expectations like Rennes will be a far better lesson in the tactical and technical aspects of the game – skills which should make it easier for him to… Read more »
So we just drew Dundalk, Molde, and Rapid Wien…our u/23s could get us through this group…but he isn’t ready.
Read that bit again. I said he was ready but it wouldn’t teach him very much
LOL! So true
On point three. Let’s say he is good (I absolutely think he is – he also better be) – he proves himself in these cup games as you say. Then you know what – he feels better about himself at Arsenal and even starts to get some game time in bigger games. Fuck, imagine that…
Even aft he spending another 2 yrs on loan so what. If he is good & has high potential by he is still only 21. If he is really that good then up his pay & extend his contact. His is only 19 now, if play him here with our current structure problem, will kill his career. We will be lucky he is good at yr 21, tell me how many centre half is very good at 21.
You’re missing the point. If he hasn’t adapted to the English game and life then why would he resign? I mean Real Madrid are said to have an interest in him, he’ll be able to go where ever he wants on a free-transfer. That is the danger. If he isn’t fully integrated and a major part of the first team by 21 then why would he stay? And we won’t be able to sell him for much if any more than we signed him for because we won’t have played him enough and allowed him to build up his value.… Read more »
WKL, are you an idiot or are you just stupid? If Saliba’s first two years were spent on loan in another country with nary a sniff in his own team, plus he did well to attract the attention of other teams, why would he want to sign an extension!?
Arteta’s answers are starting to get exasperating.
This is gross mismanagement of a guy who not only has super potential but is already easily capable now. Arteta doesn’t want to play him for whatever reason. He’s going with a guy he didn’t give any game time last year until mustafi got injured. Even cup games. Now he has this faith in holding? We’ve seen holding and mustafi. We know that they have to be protected in a 3 man back line because they get exposed otherwise. So another year of back 5(which means 2 in midfield. Good luck putting aouar in that). What an absolute waste of… Read more »
Ok, now hearing that this may be more a consideration of what’s going on at an emotional level for the lad and can understand how that would impact any decision making. If that’s the case then fair enough.
Such super potential that a manager we all trust won’t let him near the first team. The transfer of this guy stinks.
He’ll have 2 years left on his contract if we send him out this season. Saliba signed a 4 year contract and only has 3 years left right now. That means we’d have to convince him to sign an extension as soon as he returns, and he might be a little weary about Arsenal being the best place for his future, especially after being thrown back to Ligue Un for a second time. We’re taking a big gamble. I think we’d be better off keeping him with the club.
Is it possible that they think he needs to play a lot of games? That an occasional cup/Europa group stage match is exactly the opposite of what they think he needs. Are you confident that you are right and they are wrong? Because you certainly sound confident–loaning him out, anywhere, would be “madness.”
Reminds me of Drogba vs Sendros. He was never the same after that.
Yes, u r right if we play him too early
Drogba gave many defenders bad nights sleep, sendros better than remember ed
Anelka did.
If it is the right thing for Saliba long term, then it’s far from £30m wasted. I’m surprised as well, but let’s not get hysterical. Arteta knows what he’s doing, and we have more experienced defenders for now.
Sure, but what it looks like he’s doing is saying that a £27m signing isn’t going to be good enough to play for us until at least two years after we signed him.
Exactly. His well being is very important but frankly someone els3 could have paid for that for 2 years. What on earth have we paid very significant money for?
The lads 19, the idea that a 19+22yr old with less than 100 senior games between them, were going to come in and instantly form a partnership, was unlikely at best. Hopefully we tie him down to a new 5 year deal, then allow him to go pick up 30+ games, I’d prefer a championship or league 1 move for him though. You buy Saliba at 18 for €30 million, so you don’t have to buy him at 21-23 for €80million You don’t always get an instant return on investment, when you buy an 18yr old, you’re buying potential, you… Read more »
In answer to your last paragraph – Senderos, Djourou, Jones, Zouma, Nastajic, Richards. Which pretty much proves your point, chucking young CBs straight into the deep end (in the EPL at least) doesn’t tend to work out so well
We’d do well not to become overly reliant on Gabriel this season too. Hopefully Chambers and Mari can return soonish to take some of the load off
Gabriel is our best centerback already. Just watch him play, he’s as calm as a cucumber, strong, intelligent, good passing, and can play one-touch football in his sleep. He’s a breath of fresh air and the type of defender we’ve been missing for years. Tony Adams was captain of Arsenal at 21 years old. If you’re good enough, you’re old enough. Let’s give Saliba a chance, there will be opportunities for him to play. If things don’t look good by January, then revist the idea of loaning him out during the winter window.
Re Gabriel, this is a mistake we make far too often. A youngish recruit from a foreign league has a good-to-great first 5-10 games here, and we suddenly act like that position is sewn up for the next decade. Like we can just play him in every game without issue 10 games later that player starts to get physically and mentally jaded. Opposition identify weaknesses and start to exploit them. Injuries happen, and fans start to get on the player’s back. 2 years later and we find ourselves with less than half the player we thought we had. Mustafi, Kolasinac,… Read more »
Gabriel has extra speed and height on his side , compared to others in the past
how is it ridiculous? Centre backs take time to mature. Van Dijk is supposed to be the best Centre back in the world and he hadn’t played a professional game until 20, then played 5 for Groningen in the Eridevisie before playing for Celtic and then Southampton. If we bought him early and loaned him back to Celtic for two years, people would have been complaining too. Give the guy a chance. Centre backs take time to build the mental toughness to excel at the top.
The point is that his contract will be running down by the time he is a regular.
He was already a starter for his old club though, and is used to being a mainstay. An argument could be made that Premier League is different, but that makes a staggered introduction – in the Premier League itself – far better than just shipping him off to a league that he is already used to. Arsenal need to offload, and Saliba needs to be blooded here. I have the greatest of regards for Arteta and Edu, but that doesn’t mean we have to grasp for rationalizations for every move they make. This is a mistake, and needs to be… Read more »
Agree. This is weird. Is he just not that good?
Maybe Arteta does not rate him after seeing him in training. Pepe seems to be the same and has dropped below Willian in the pecking order. At 19 he still has time on his side though.
Dropping Pepe for Willian is a mistake. One good game for Willy so far, since then he’s been bang average. Now we’re going to ship Reiss Nelson out of the club and bench our most expensive signing in Arsenal history for a Kia client, bad juju in my opinion. Our players can see what’s happening and it’s not a good look.
It’s a fair general point. We certainly lack quality but not quantity in defence – which is the wrong way around of course. Although their contract circumstances differ, Mustafi, Sokratis and Chambers (despite some recent performances) for example just aren’t up to the job. The current priority is a midfielder, probably Auoar at this stage, so I can’t see the situation changing before the next window opens anyway.
To be fair, the implication was that other clubs are expected to show interest in a loan and some may be in England. Part of the decision may be squeezing as much cheddar out of the loan. That said, it’s a shame he won’t be any help in his second year of a 30m signing.
Saliba is going to suffer because Mikel didn’t sign him. He would need to prove himself otherwise he will never get time under Mikel.
We literally only have one centre back of sufficient quality with Gabriel, don’t understand this decision at all. We all know from all of the past seasons that Luiz, Mustafi, Holding, Sokratis, Chambers etc all aren’t good enough
I dont mean to overreact but this is easily one of the two most shocking news articles I’ve read all day
What’s the other one?
OK, ignore that. I should really watch the news more.
Obviously Sheffield United signing Rhian Brewster for £23.5m is the other story.
LOL! Welcome to the new Arsenal!
Pepe £72m and Saliba £27m, £100m just on these two…….and we haven’t even seen Saliba play for us……..really need to question what Raul was doing last summer, seems like a crazy amount of resources wasted. Let’s hope whatever happens with Saliba that he gets game time somewhere (preferably us!) and has a progressive season. Still can’t quite believe the outlay on these two and what we have got in return ?
We spent ninety nine million, but on the pitch ain’t one!
Why do you think he got fired
There is some serious mismanaging of money in our recent history. What kind of checks are in place for expenditure at the club?
It’s not fair on the players to be measured against this, it is totally on the club, 70m on Pepe and 27m on Saliba to sit out two seasons is insane.
To be fair, the check was Tim Lewis and the outcome was the bloke in charge of the football side of things being sacked. Can’t ask for much more. Sadly the collateral damage of Raul’s decisions are likely to be felt as much as the awful decisions Gazidis/Wenger made in their latter years. However, it also wasn’t all that long ago when certain fans of our club were praising Raul and calling him a hero for spunking silly money on Pepe…
On a serious note though, I wonder whether there is also something of a strategic financial decision at play here. To garner another loan fee, for an extra couple of million, to go towards one of our desired incoming targets. I’m not sure what the potential for loan fees from the French leagues would be though…
I’d give you 100 up votes if I could. Thank goodness Raul is gone. The owners should sue his ass for dereliction of his fiduciary duty.
I imagine this is being done as we can’t shift Sokratis, Mustafi or Chambers before the window closes.
It’s not the most ideal scenario but with his wages covered & regular playing time it makes a degree of sense.
Once the three mentioned above & Luiz leave at the end of this season in 2021/22 he’ll have a spot and a chance to establish himself in the team.
Why France though? Surely a Championship club would make more sense?
France makes more sense. It’s their top division and miles ahead of the championship and at 19 he’s probably having issues settling in a new country and style of football.
In France he was doing well and if he progresses well then he will be ready. Most of the defenders and defensive midfielders from that league fit effortlessly in the PL.
Issue here is a 19 year old we are talking about. People who were hyping him up prematurely are the ones writing him off prematurely and complaining about the fee.
Agree with this. In PL Fulham could be an option although he should get game time there. Loaning out to a French club means there will be another transition year when he returns from loan.
Things only Arsenal can do:
1. Invincible season
2. 14 Fa cup
3. Spending 27M on a player and send him on loan the next 2 years.
4. Pay a player £350 000 a week to watch Arsenal on Tv.
5. Buy players who are already injured.
6.Offer £1 over a “secret” buy-out clause.
?????
Daveo, why would you offer more? If something costs ten quid, do you pay twenty?
Did the extra quid work?
The buy out clause turned out to be as non existent as the “fouls” which caused Suarez to fall over so regularly.
?????
This would be quite the surprise, we might as well have left him with St. Etienne and let him compete in the cup final. Wonder what’s going through his head right now.
He must be scratching his head the same way we are. It beggars belief.
We better send Chambers and Sokrati not Saliba bcz he has to learn under close guidance of Arteta or loan him within EPL
How long is his contract? If we were to loan him out for a second year then that would basically mean we’d be looking to negotiate a new contract by the time he finally does play for us.
And if we do loan him surely we should look at newly promoted sides to the prem to get him some experience in this league?
his still very young for a centre back and hasn’t played Lot of senior football, perhaps you key board manager’s need to carm down, and perhaps realise sending him back to France is a environment he knows he’ll be closer to his family. And it will mostly give him an extra year to develop as a man aswell as a player.
We would be in this same situation next year and then what? Loan him back to France again?
Enough heads haven’t rolled yet. This is a clear example of how badly we continue to be managed as a club. I can understand the comments about how he is still young and this is perfect to develop a player for our future etc.. Problem is we are not a club who can afford to invest in our future. We need to invest in our present, and we can’t manage to do that. Even Fulham are spending big money on improving their squad for this season. If we had spare budget for the future I would love spending 30m on… Read more »
Rennes is just about to finalise a loan deal for Rugani from Juve. Would have been Saliba an alternative or someone to play next to him?
We will see…
Very strange!
Only Arsenal can do this sort of ridiculous deal. First sign him for 27m+ and then loan him back to the player to a French club for two years! When he’s supposed to know the Premier League and learn the language why would you send him back to a league he has already played? What benefits does it add when loaned out to a different league for a year? If he was to be loaned out why recall him early in June and not let him play in the French Cup with his boyhood club? Arsenal, why you know you… Read more »
So is this another one of Raul’s dodgy deals turning out to be us not just buying but overspending on a player that isn’t up to scratch in order to line the pockets of one of his slimey agent mates? Is that why Saliba is going on loan for a second consecutive season?
For fucks sake!
What is the difference between an injury and a personal injury?
I wonder what’s really going on here? On the face of it this makes no sense. Maybe Saliba is feeling homesick and is having problems settling in.
More transfer madnesses from Arsenal.
You know how you get over homesickness? By sticking it out and adapting, not running home. If he is able to go and play regularly with a good English team his adaptation would be enormously boosted. That’s why I suggested Brentford or Palace.
imagine having a conniption about loaning out a 19 year old centre-half. Have a word with yourselves.
Our fanbase wanted Project Youth but doesn’t have any patience for developing young players
In my opinion project youth means buying young players and giving them matchtime. Many fans would be on board with that. It doesn’t mean buying random youngsters, loaning them to half the planet and then determining that they are not good enough for Arsenal, making a minus in the process while the player doesn’t feature a single minute for us. That’s not project youth, that’s just bad business.
Just to clarify, I do not say that Saliba falls into that category.
Most 19 yr old centre halfs do not rank amongst our most expensive signings ever. It is reasonable that there is a degree of angst about this situation. I don’t think anyone is slating the player, more questioning how this move would be beneficial to Arsenal.
Chu Young Park Part 2
The only good thing out of this situation (LOL) is that Rennes are in the CL and that kind of experience could be valuable, if and when we get there
Back in May, Ornstein had reported that Saliba may join training late because of the death of a loved one. There are rumours that the loved one in question was his mum, and if that’s true you can understand why Arsenal are taking it slow with him. Maybe going back to France helps him recover with his family close to him.
That would make a lot more sense of this – he’s only 19, I imagine it would hit him pretty hard and dealing with that loss from afar must be difficult.
Thanks Pepe, fans are forgetting that this is a person, a young nineteen year old in a strange country, in a Covid society where people can’t socialise normally, with language issues. If he has been dealing with the death of his mum, or another very close family member then he really needs to go home for a while. I’m sure the club will do the right thing, his welfare is the most important thing. Another year in France near family and friends, another year to learn English, I’m sure that he and his family will appreciate that when the contract… Read more »
I just thought about our non-homegrown players. We have 19, the cap is 17. If we’re looking to bring in a new technical CM – and no one wanting to take any of our highly paid bench warmers… We have to do some clever juggling. So a loan might be the only option anyway.
Yup, that’s exactly it. We are two over as of today, not even considering who new might come in. So if we are going to get a Partey or Auour, we will need to offload at least three.
But I am also taking it as a sign that we are not close enough to selling or loaning Torreira, Sokratis, or anyone else of that ilk.
So we exclude Ozil and Guendouzi, both of whom are determined to stick around like a fart in a lift..
He’s under 21.
It becoming slowly clear as to why Raul lost his job. We clearly overpaid – both Pepe and Saliba. Hopefully they both will come good in the coming seasons
guess partly a sign that Arteta isn’t confident of moving Sokratis and Mustafi
We should snap up that Jean-Clair Todibo lad on the cheap from Barca, the kid can play and will allow Saliba the time he needs to develop while not depleting our squad.
Oh WTF, this is beggars belief that 6 champions league games, 2 being against Chelsea is going to change his development by a huge margin. If Arteta feels he’s not physically or mentally ready he ought to work it out here at Arsenal or at least in England. If he doesn’t speak enough English, there’s no better way to learn than to stay in the country. Even at 19 he’s been a professional player for a few years, lets expect as much. More so, we know the quality of the other center backs in our system, if Mustafi, Sokratis, chambers… Read more »
Guess that means the dead wood is staying. yaaaayyy……..
It is blindingly obvious had Arteta been here a season earlier he would not not have green lit this transfer. I have not seen Saliba in action but when we have a club as ours who are repeatedly reported as being on a tight budget etc why pay such a high fee for ‘Potential’, we need players for the here and now. I have no doubt Saliba will turn into a very good defender in the future but how does that help now when we have been out of CL for past 4 seasons? I feel this has been yet… Read more »
I’m not going to lose my shit over this. I still think the investment in him in the long term is something to be excited about, and he’s still 19. His peak could be in 8-10 years time and while I hope he plays really well for us sooner than that, I’m willing to wait a bit longer.
Cf. Fofana (19; St. Etienne) to Leicester today. Loan back? Unlikely.
It’s not that long ago there was a big push around mental health awareness in football. If it’s true that his mother died a few months ago, he may well be struggling at 19 years of age in a foreign country during a pandemic with all the expectation of stepping up to the spotlight on the Premier League. IF that’s the case, I’m not sure a stint at Fulham (or wherever) is going to help. Bottom line is that we don’t know – and, unless he or the club choose to publicise it, we won’t know. Much as I’d like… Read more »
look like the Rennes deal is off , they re getting Rugani instead
I mean if we can’t feature him in Caribao cup bc we faced Liverpool, Man City, Barca and Bayern… Makes no sense why he could not have played. In any case as I mentioned last summer, we over paid for a player that is potentially good but still not fully proven. That transpires to between him and Pepe 20m each window. Ina ddition to Magalhaes we are out 44m already. Income Martinez 20m if Torreira is out on loan with no option to buy, we will struggle to add. Worth reminding many fans and the usual simplistic media cohort. As… Read more »
For all the hype around him it’s strange we’ve not seem him. It feels like had we had a kinder draw in the league cup he would have got some game time there but instead we’ve had it as hard as it gets. Although there is still the Europa league and FA cup. The worrying thing is that this seems to point to us not moving any or many of the other CBs on.
We’ve seen a number of our players loaned out in England at both epl and championship level without getting adequate game time—better to send him where he’ll play. He’ll get face time in France and that’s fine at his age. Remember calum chambers his first season? Young defenders need time to develop and epl level isn’t the best place to start. Let him have a season to get healthy and have some success. If you’re planning on him starting for arsenal in the next 3 years before he’s really proven himself at any level, you’re kidding yourself. That said, I… Read more »
So we exclude Ozil and Guendouzi, both of whom are determined to stick around like a fart in a lift. Still means we don’t have room for any other foreign players. This doesn’t look like a strategic decision….
They should loan him to a championship side instead