As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
Ornstein: "Arsenal's big priority is slimming the squad down - getting rid of players who aren't playing and who aren't necessarily the best influences around the camp - while they are not playing, they're going to be disgruntled..."
.@David_Ornstein:
•Brandt one of several options.
•No expectation on part of Ozil or club that he'll be re-integrated.
•Arsenal has 'really big hopes' Saliba will be part of future.
•Arsenal aim to trim squad, get rid of bad influences.
Nice manager confirms William Saliba is having his medical at the club now.
The lad has already played 30 games in his 'home' league so clearly another 10-20 games in the same league are really going to tell us if he's ready for the PL
Plenty big clubs out there that could badly do with a decent centre back this window yet one of Europe’s hottest prospects (allegedly) ends up at Nice.
Give it up lads he’s fucking shite, if you want to lose your minds about it then aim it at Don Raul for spunking 27 million quid (minus the bung) on him.
Insane transfer. As I said about Pepe, is anyone seriously telling me Lille would have turned down 42 million for him? Like fuck they would yet we insanely bid 72 million.
Same with Saliba, never in a million years was he a 27 million pound player. Something incredibly fishy about both them transfers that should be investigated by the authorities.
Plenty big clubs out there that could badly do with a decent centre back this window yet one of Europe’s hottest prospects (allegedly) ends up at Nice.
Give it up lads he’s fucking shite, if you want to lose your minds about it then aim it at Don Raul for spunking 27 million quid (minus the bung) on him.
Insane transfer. As I said about Pepe, is anyone seriously telling me Lille would have turned down 42 million for him? Like fuck they would yet we insanely bid 72 million.
Same with Saliba, never in a million years was he a 27 million pound player. Something incredibly fishy about both them transfers that should be investigated by the authorities.
The problem with your thinking is that you could throw the names of mustafi, xhaka, kolasniac, and countless others that had nothing to do with don raul - we have a long recent history of garbage purchases, but because don raul signed saliba we are supposed to assume that he is shite
Personally I would much rather see a player with my own eyes before making a judgement - I'm not saying that my judgement is always correct but I will neither crown nor condemn a player purely on someone's opinion and certainly not when that person is a manager whose own judgement borders on insane. I will watch saliba if I can when he plays for nice, and if I feel that he is not good enough then I will say as much on here, but the difference between him and pepe is that pepe has had chances to prove if he is good enough - saliba has not
You’re missing the point Augie. It’s not so much the fact we signed him I’m having a moan about it’s Raul pissing away 27 million on him that’s the issue. Although if he’s as good as everyone thinks what the fuck is he doing at Nice?
Eyebrows were raised in footballing circles at that fee, it seemed way above the odds, then alarm bells exploded around Europe when 72 million quid was spent on Pepe.
Both deals we massively overpaid for the players and the question is why?
Cedric, Mari and finally Willian were the 3 deals that got Raul the sack (and all Kia players to boot, who’d a thunk it eh?) but the warning signs were there the summer before with the Pepe and Saliba deals.
If there wasn’t some sort of financial irregularities going on with both those deals I’ll eat my own cock.
Calling him shite was unfair so I’ll retract that. It’s probably got nothing to do with his ability at all. He just seems to want to run off home to France, maybe he just can’t settle here.
Half the premier league could do with a centre back, from Liverpool at the top end to every club scrapping relegation - are we to believe none of them were interested?
Edu (Arsenal technical director): “William Saliba is a player with a huge amount of talent & potential. We’re confident he will have a great career with us but we must remember that he is still only 19 years old & has a lot of time ahead of him.” #afc
Edu (Arsenal technical director): “William Saliba is a player with a huge amount of talent & potential. We’re confident he will have a great career with us but we must remember that he is still only 19 years old & has a lot of time ahead of him.” #afc
Edu (Arsenal technical director): “William Saliba is a player with a huge amount of talent & potential. We’re confident he will have a great career with us but we must remember that he is still only 19 years old & has a lot of time ahead of him.” #afc
Generally speaking, if none of the ‘big clubs’ are interested in a player, then they are either not good enough or too young to gamble on.
No big club was interested in Pepe, nor Saliba. Saliba could well come good, I read a few glowing reviews about his potential from established names in the game but Pepe.....FFS, that was a shocking transfer. NO-ONE in the French league is worth 70m apart from Mbappe who is a generational talent. I do genuinely think that there should be an investigation into that transfer.
Saliba was so good Emery was happy to leave him on loan for a year when we had all those shit defenders and injuries
Guess we may never know how good he could have been but i'm beginning to get the feeling he may have been a Pepe-esque signing, more to this than meets the eye baring in mind that we still have a woeful crop of CBs and as Arteta seems currently more inclined to try at least some of the youngsters at the moment i'd have expected him to at least get on the bench.
Remind me, exactly who was in for him before we got him?
I expect Saliba to return to the squad in the summer once Luiz, Sokratis, and Mustafi have left.
More interestingly reports suggest we are offering Norwich willock or Nelson plus cash for Guendia.
Nice manager confirms William Saliba is having his medical at the club now.
