Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has battered away suggestions that centre-back William Saliba is close to making his senior debut for the club.
The 19-year-old has been restricted to playing games for the Under 21s and Under 23s since his £27m move from Saint-Etienne, leaving many to question why the Gunners signed the player. Arteta says that, while the defender has made great strides in recent months, he will only make an appearance as and when he’s deemed ready:
“Whenever we have the spaces and we believe that he’s ready to play with us. To be fair, he’s made massive improvements in the last few months and it’s been a really tricky situation for him.”
Saliba’s situation has left a lot of Arsenal fans scratching their heads and many supporters on Twitter are unhappy with Arteta’s treatment of the player:
Play him and stop all these unnecessary excuses
— McKenZy_MKZ (@McAdjei2) December 10, 2020
Dis guy deserves to start he can’t be any worse dan wat we have rn
— Air??️ Bourne~Oh (@AirBorn17672225) December 10, 2020
He should be playing now. £28m and we need good defenders if he aint up to it GET RID i still think arteta is the man but something is wrong at our club and it needs sorting
— Gooner Jona sea angler 71 (@jona_jones71) December 10, 2020
Gabriel. 22 million and playing every game…I don’t understand
— Peter wright (@Hbg251) December 10, 2020
This Again will be Arteta downfall
— BongweD. (@bongwe_ncube) December 10, 2020
Mustafi, Luiz and Holding ain’t better than him but somehow they are less tricky choices.
— Ijay Ugwu (@desire_ijay1) December 10, 2020
100% him and Gabriel should be a great pairing
— Ali (@Mercs107s) December 10, 2020
This Guy…..for a guy who plays Holding and Mustaphi – he doesn’t have a high of a standard as he thinks he does.
— Mandla_Jarane (@Mandla_Greg) December 10, 2020
Can’t be any worse then Luiz and Sokratis
— Michael Hackney (@hackabusi) December 10, 2020
I’m here to say Fofana was Saliba’s understudy and now he starts almost all games for Leicester. He does make his mistakes but so do all young CBs. Its what makes them better.
— Ayabulela Yokwana (@NewHouse_NM) December 10, 2020
Arteta’s comments do appear to suggest that Saliba is making progress towards playing for the first team but the likeliest outcome is that he will be allowed to leave on loan when the transfer window opens next month.
Tonight’s match against Dundalk would have been a perfect game to play him in but he was left out of the Europa League squad so the prospect of him making his debut soon is pretty low.