Developing young players

The William Saliba Case

Quite the household name in and around the arsenal, William saliba seemed to have grown onto the fans ever since his signing. However, his development path hasn’t been the most convenient, leaving many fans in displeasure. Mikel Arteta was very strict with the young Frenchman’s growth, having played him zero times for the first team and mainly limiting him to the U-23s, fans, and the player himself was confused and unhappy with his treatment.

Little did we know what Mikel had in mind for the young prodigy. Loans to St Etienne, Nice and Marseille, the player was sent to get gametime under his belt, learn and gather experience by playing first team football on a regular basis. And this is exactly how it panned out for both the parties, Saliba’s loan spell at Marseille, the 21/22 season was an exceptional one. Slotting right into the backline, Saliba played a total of 54 games and amassing a staggering 20 clean sheets in all competition. Saliba was arguably one of the best ligue 1 Players and THE BEST young player of the season, winning the ligue 1 YPOTS award. Impressed by his achievements, Deschamps handed Saliba his first call up to the French national team.

The Derby against PSG brought alot of spotlight on the Frenchman, an astounding performance keeping the Parisians at bay and giving a tough time to Mbappe and topping the match off with a clean sheet. Saliba was more so than wanted back to London by then, fans demanded him to start over either of our current defensive pairing. Another advantage of recalling the Frenchman was having a proper squad depth in the defensive zone, something we’ve really lacked during the previous season.

Regardless, Mikel really had the fans at nerves with saliba but boy did it pay off well! Loaned out as just another youngster, coming back as the best young player, his develop journey is remarkable. All credits to both Saliba and Arteta for working on this patiently. Can’t wait to see you in action, William.