According to various reports, David Luiz will leave Arsenal when his current deal ends in June.
Recruited courtesy of Edu’s close links with agent Kia Joorabchian, the ex-Chelsea defender was a panic purchase after former captain Laurent Koscielny forced a move back to France in the closing stages of the 2019 summer transfer window.
Given his reputation for erratic performances, we expected a roller coaster ride and he didn’t disappoint. There were good games, bad games, red cards, conceded penalties, a few goals (none free-kicks) and an FA Cup triumph secured at the expense of his former club. In total, he’s played 73 games for the Gunners.
David Luiz leaving Arsenal at end of season. 34yo told club today + they agreed. #AFC had not offered new deal & even if they did the Brazil int’l defender wouldn’t have signed as decision had been made to go @TheAthleticUK @SamiMokbel81_DM 1st off mark 👏 https://t.co/W00EY5VOlS
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) May 14, 2021
This season, fitness problems have really hampered him and there’s a fairly high chance we won’t see him in Gunners colours again given he’s sidelined by a hamstring injury which he picked up on his return from a minor knee procedure.
Luiz took a pay cut last summer to stick around for a second season but despite his experience and apparent popularity in the dressing room, it appears both parties have decided the 34-year-old’s future lies elsewhere. Given our parlous financial situation, it’s not a huge surprise.
Arsenal are expected to recall William Saliba from Nice this summer as a replacement.
Confirmation of the decision isn’t likely to come until after the final game of the season. All the same, we wish David all the best for the future.
Good move for all involved.
I really love his personality and it is a loss of great experience and know how when it comes to lifting trophies.
But as a player, and with us all salivating to see Saliba, it’s time.
Has he been better or worse than I expected? Neither. He’s been exactly what we all expected.
What’s the latest on Saliba? There were positive reports in the months after his loan at Nice started, but haven’t heard anything since.
Played every game and pretty much every minute ever since. Nice have a wild season. When you look at match reports, everyone around him got subbed off or sent off, but he only received 1 yellow card in 15+ games. I think you can call that a success. Though he is still a 20 year old CB. He can improve quite, but in comparison to others at that age, he is on another level.
He has played 98% of the available minutes while starting 90% of the games for Nice in League 1. Not bad since he didn’t make it to the bench for any game here.
Are you sure you aren’t salivating. Badum tiss!!!
I mean salibating. Damn autocorrect.
In autocorrect’s defence, in this case, it is just doing its job…
They took our jerrrrbs
Yeah, I also really appreciate David as a person. But it is time to develop some people on the pitch. I mean his passing was out of this world, but we also need defenders at this club.
It is worrying that we offered Luis a new deal. We have a squad filled with defenders and still offered a past it 34 yr old a new deal
Why, lord why?
They didn’t. He is leaving.
It’s been reported that we didn’t offer him a new deal and that he wouldn’t take it even if we did.
So basically we’re all on the same page on this one.
We didn’t. Calm down
Yeah but we should have. As much as people like to moan about Luiz he was easily our best defender this year when fit and healthy. Another 12 months to have around when needed wouldn’t have been that bad an idea. Especially as no one really knows if Saliba is the real deal or not. Arteta obviously has his doubts so why not have Luiz ready to go if we needed him. He’d also be good on the coaching staff. Well respected, former Brazil Captain etc etc…
While I agree, on his day, he was our best CB… he was too frequently the cause of our downfall. CB and GK are the two positions on the field that absolutely cannot accept calamitous mistakes. The others at least have some coverage so can be gradually more cavalier as the position becomes more attacking. I’d rather we have a consistent 6 or 7 CB than the 4 or 9 that Luiz was and frankly always has been. He was a 10 for his personality though and perhaps that was needed for a new manager to help show the attitude… Read more »
With almost no possibility of playing in euro, it’s time to give the youth the necessary exposure. We are building for the future, removing players on excess wages(Yes, please take William with you too) and trim a otherwise heavy squad without euro competition. And I would love to see Saliba master…,, I mean in action
In my main comment I meant Luiz was “our best central defender”…KT would be overall best defender…
I always expected we’d use him in midfield. We only did on one occasion – that game got Unai the sack.
Willian next I hope. If they can work something out like they did with Ozil. Willian is stinking the place out with his bloated wages and giving absolutely nothing back in return. And we have players like Martinelli and Nelson not getting game time because of this man. I swear to god if any of the super agents make all the transfer calls for us again this summer then I am officially done. Starting first and foremost with Kia, given his past history with Edu and Corinthians. Mari aside all his other players have given us nothing apart from ruining… Read more »
Hopefully not like with Ozil. Didn’t we wind up paying up his contract just to get rid?
Difference is Willian is still on for another year or maybe even two. Luiz was year-to-year, so it was extend or not. Willian can sit on his if he chooses. I doubt offers will top what he’s on here, so unless out of the goodness of his heart he decides he’s willing to take a cut to go somewhere else, he’ll probably go nowhere. There are no reports of attitude baggage with him, so it’s also unlikely the club will move mountains to move him on. Seems like a decent guy, and we’ve got a couple of Brazilians he can… Read more »
this is the best for us and for him i think. frustrating player who always gave his all and seems like a good sort off the pitch. so next season we could have chambers, holding, mari, gabriel, saliba and mavropanos as options at CB. decisions, decisions.
I’d love to see a CB pair given a long enough run of games together next season.
My pick would be Saliba-Gabriel: both young, mobile and technical. Saliba looks like he could replace Luiz’s quality of pass, that we missed so badly in a few important games… And it’s time we reap the benefits of the investment we made on him 2 years ago.
Holding-Mari is a good back-up pair, and I think we will keep one of Chambers or Dinos (the former I guess, as the latter has some suitors in Germany and could raise decent money).
Are Gabriel & Saliba both left footed CBs? I would’ve thought Holding & Gabriel would be a more natural pairing.
Good to have these options either way
No, Saliba seems to be right footed, but plays on the left at Nice, cause it seems they have no left footer at that level.
Having a pairing of right-footers has never been a problem. Why should a pair of left-footers be?
I would personally put a youngster as the 6th option. We can’t stack 6 CBs again. And what would that do to his development? It is also another Non-homegrown spot wasted.
Maybe sell one of Chambers or Cedric? But a new RB?
*Buy
its going to be bellerin
Bellerin will go. Chambers will probably be a defensive allrounder. Cedric is a proper RB backup, like we need at LB.
Is Cedric recovering or out on injury? We haven’t seen him on the pitch for some time. With Bellerin going, whether or not Cedric is seen as a solid enough backup or starter makes a big difference in whether or not we need to get a new RB. If the club is tight fisted without European dollars, we could end up with Chambers / Cedric there for the season. We’ll have AMN coming back from loan as well. So 3 potential RB’s, but no real standout in the bunch. With left back backup for Kt sorely needed, midfield improvement on… Read more »
Yeah definitly. But Bellerin should get us enough money to get a proper replacement. And AMN … If he does not get his MF spot, he is gone. Or he changes his mind. But if we sell him too, there should be enough money for Lamptey/Aarons/Emerson or a secret call. It very much seems like Bertrand could be the man at LB too. From here on it really depends on how many people we can get out and for how much. And if silent Stan does not put in a shift, that is the last straw, that broke the broken… Read more »
I’d be surprised if Chambers or Mavropanos were with us next season. Six CBs are too many to keep everyone happy and one of those two seems the most likely to depart to me.
Keep Chambers – right back, centre back or defensive midfield.
Yes, he’s certainly more versatile isn’t he. Anyway, we’ll see. It may be that Saliba won’t want to return so we could end up retaining both.
Whatever combination turns out I still think we can’t sustain six players for the places available. It’s great on paper, but it won’t work.
I think Chambers will stay. He is versatile and can play def and def mid
Yes, I concede that it’s a fair point. Chambers has been mentioned fairly consistently as an option for sale in the summer though. May mean nothing, of course.
Isn’t he entering the final year of his contract? We either need to extend or sell
And he’s surely going to want some playing time guarantees.
Any formation where Holding or Mari is among the first 11 should get all alarm bells ringing. Tell me any team above us (and there is a few) where they would be regular starters. I’m all up for trying out our two young prospects in Gabriel and Salina well knowing the risks. But we’ve seen the best of Holding and Mari and none of them can elevate us. In a world where we had owners who cared I would invest in that killer defender that can bring out the best of Salina and Gabriel. And say goodbye to either holding… Read more »
Holding would likely both start at West Ham in place of Dawson.
But I take your point.
He always said he wants to retire with Benfica – maybe he’ll pop up there for a year.
Came, got sent off a few times, gave away some penalties, won more FA Cups than Spurs in 30 years.
Some weren’t even worth getting sent off for.
Yes, The Wolves game that we were strolling through was destroyed by his non-contact penalty and red card.
And those 3 points are going to be massive!
I’d add the post match interviews as they had me howling with laughter. He’d make a great pundit.
Thanks for your service. Sad that he was our best defender this season. Says more about the club than him. Too injure prone to extend.
Best of luck, Sideshow Bob!
I think you’ll find Tierney is our best defender. Luiz was/is a liability.
would love if arseblog news did little articles letting us know the outcomes of games with Saliba involved. has he still been doing well?
Hoping for a year end review of all loan players!
A regular loan-watch article wouldn’t be too bad.
They do appear occasionally, but I guess a lot of time and energy would have to go into watching each individual game for X player, across countless matches.
As an aside, I’ve spent months assuming that Blogs writing about a “Europa Conference League” was just one of his jokes, taking the mick out of our current predicament scrabbling for European scraps.
Makes it kinda clear to me how much of a joke the idea of a Europa Conference League is… and why the bloody hell would they name it that, anyway?!
He did pretty well as far as I’m concerned. Played most minutes of every game ever since his loan. Was in quarantine for one or two games. A solid 1 600+ Minutes of Ligeau 1 in the tank. Still has to improve but every player has to. I would be shocked, if he won’t play similar minutes next year.
Consummate pro and positive influence in a chaotic time for the club.
Best of to you David.
Decent enough for us in the past couple of years. But sensible to call time on it now.
Maybe they can convince him to take Willian with him!
You want it all, don’t you… .
With Luiz leaving I think it’s even more important that the CM we buy to partner Partey isn’t just a straight destroyer-type, but someone who can pass creatively also
Perhaos a mate from Brighton?
I don’t know… Is Bissouma creative really? Also — someone who can score at least a few goals a season would be nice, what with Partey’s… struggles
Struggles is putting it lightly!
By all accounts Partey has a good shot on him, so I’m hoping he will use the preseason to calibrate his sights.
He should be good for a few goals a season, if up and firing.
Can he take his mate Willian with him?
If only.
Luiz, Willian, Xhaka and Ceballos.
Get shot of those four and we at least start games with XI men again.
Ceballos is on loan mate.
Xhaka is actually one of our better midfielders this season by I certainly think we can do with an upgrade.
And thank God he is on loan. This time last year, everyone was clamouring for him to be signed up and I was thumbed down by the odd million in five for saying he wasn’t good enough.
There’s not so many clamouring for him to sign now. Funny that.
It’s fair to say, however, that his performances have gone clearly downhill and his flaws have magnified in that time. Early on he brought something we were missing. Now, not so much. No point in going after people for reacting to what they see.
Perhaps you were thumbed down for the way you communicated your message last year rather than the content itself?
That is only a hypothesis, mind, because I didn’t read said messages and I usually thumb you down for both your tone and your content.
Ooops.
I forgot Cedric.
How could I…?…….
Overall I think he did a pretty decent job, but time to move on. We can’t be reliant on him to build our future.
I do however fear that he brought so much to the side with his ability to play the ball, acting as a bit of a quarter back for us at times, with the ability to switch defence to attack. We’ve missed him when he’s not played as we lost that ‘out ball’, which none of our current other CB’s have in the locker. Not watched enough of Saliba, but really hoping that’s one of his strengths!
Makes sense to blood a relatively young CB pairing in Saliba + 1 for most of next season – even if it might cost us some points here and there. Having Luiz around would’ve been useful but easily replaceable and hopefully for someone much cheaper. Don’t mind a collection CB’s in Gabriel, Saliba, Holding, Chambers & Mari but can totally see some Iffy games from this bunch if Saliba is not as good as we think/hope he is so an experienced head would be ideal.
It’s been a real rollercoaster season for him. Highlights include getting knocked out in the first Wolves game and continuing for 70 mins while heavily bleeding and concussed, and then the second Wolves game for getting sent off and conceding a penalty for breathing on the back of their player’s head.
Good news
Good riddance.
The guy did a decent job and has a real good ball players. Pass on some credit will you!
He did a decent job of picking up stupid red cards and dropping his team mates in it.
Also prone to the odd howler or five.
Glad to see the back of him.
Classy
Apart from the various blips, some bigger than others, he’s been alright for us and I’ve enjoyed having him on board but this is probably the right time to bid adieu.
More urgen IMO though, are the rumours about Willian being unhappy and wanting to leave true? Because that REALLY needs to happen!
If he is unhappy, leaving would be best for everyone. Paying him off won’t be cheap though.
Surprised anyone would want to keep an unhappy player at the club.
I have a better idea than paying him off. We tear up his contract and pay him nothing by mutual consent.
I know it ain’t happening but a boy can dream.
I quite liked him. Big game player.
As over 30 year old ex-Chelsea players go, he wasn’t by any means the worst. All the same, I expect fewer calamitous defensive incidents with William Saliba next year.
Gabby as yet does not fill me with a great deal of confidence, but I do like the potential attached.
Holding my tongue on Saliba until I actually have any knowledge of him playing in the PL.
We might actually play Saliba?
Bloody hell! It’ll be bears demanding indoor plumbing and the Pope converting to Islam next..
But does Saliba want to play for us? His reported remarks over his loan and the way that was handled (very amateurishly, in my opinion) didn’t appear to endear much him to Arsenal. Things may change of course and he may now be ready to return and “give his all” for the club. He just strikes me as being more at home on the continent though.
*him much
Why does he strike you as more at home on the Continent?
He was given no chance to show how well he can play in England.
Ok
As others have said, best for both parties. Hopefully, Saliba will want to return to fill the place.
Calling Saliba from Nice for the summer replacement …. That sounded way too optimistic. 🙂
Shame he was not younger as not only does he seem like a really nice guy but he is great with the young players. Could have been Captain under different circumstances
It’s actually a bit sad. I like him even if he goes mental now and then 😁 He seems like a good bloke.
Good luck in the future Luiz.
For all our defensive frailty according to pundits, we are third on the GA column. Only City and Chelsea have conceded less goals than us.
Surprising I must say.
Everton have had an amazing season; but they are only one point ahead of us, albeit with a game in hand.
The way these pundits go on about Arsenal, you’d think we narrowly escaped relegation.
Maybe it’s their expectation of us; who knows?
I believe a good summer will take us closer to the top 4 next season.
We have the foundation in place.
We should have given him a new 3-year contact on 250k a week.
A good character and strong personality, very likeable overall. Good luck to him.
No more Luiz free kicks thank goodness!
Had some great games and not so great games for us, no ill will. Thanks and best of luck.
the easiest decision of the summer, done today!
Fantastic news.
Not a player ever likely to be called an Arsenal legend, but good luck to him. At least he tried.
Excellent news.
Someone’s prob given Edu a kick up the backside.
And BTW Blogs, EXCELLENT pic today for Europa Conference League with Haddock and Lego Hair.:D
Much more consistent performer than I thought he would be. Im generally left with a positive memory of Luiz. Fantastic guy, great in the dressing room, and a much better defender than I have ever given him credit of before he joined us. Has his brain farts now and then, but really…so does all our defenders, including the man he replaced. Offered the little extra with his long passes as well. Really hope Saliba can replace that, because we have no one else who can do it. My guess is he’s going to play in Brazil now, because he hasnt… Read more »
It should make enough space for young CBs to grow into the team. And there won’t be many matches to play next year too. And I think with the likes of Mari and Holding, there should be an element of experience in the side. Plus it seems Arteta does a bit of defensive coaching right. At this stage, I want to have players around the squad, that you are hopeful for, that you want to stick with them for a couple of years.
Oh no, I can’t believe he’s going…oh wait
When he is fit, he is Arsenal’s best central defender. Paolo Maldini played on Milan until he was 41. I think Luiz should give it at least one more year.