Mikel Arteta has explained why he initially loaned out William Saliba in his early days at the club, and what eventually convinced him to integrate the centre-back.
The big news in Arsenal circles this week has been that William Saliba intends to sign a new contract with the Gunners. The centre-back was only under contract until 2027 and had drawn interest from Real Madrid, but reports suggest he’ll now extend his deal to 2030.
That will be a major blow to Real Madrid, who had hoped to convince Saliba to follow in the footsteps of Trent Alexander-Arnold by running down his contract and leaving for next to nothing.
But it’s a big boost for Arsenal, with Saliba widely regarded as one of the world’s best defenders. Aged just 24, the France international likely still has many years at the top ahead of him.
Saliba is clearly happy playing at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta right now, but things didn’t always look so rosy for the pair. When Arteta first arrived, Saliba played very little for the Gunners, instead going out on loan to OGC Nice and Marseille.
There’s been plenty of online debate about the reason why, with some arguing that Arteta simply didn’t rate Saliba at first, whilst others claim it was a necessary part of the defender’s development.
Addressing that period in a press conference this week, Arteta explained that it was much more of the latter.
“There were a few (conversations with Saliba), the last one it was unfortunately over the phone, because it was during Covid,” Arteta recalled.
“I said: ‘Listen, I have to be honest, the last thing that I want is you being here and you not playing the football that in my opinion you have to play in order to continue to develop.’
“The club was on board with that and after that, when I saw him and looked in his eyes, I said: ‘in my opinion you are ready, what do you think?’ And he said: ‘yeah, I’m ready.’ And then everything started to flourish.
“[I was convinced] when I started seeing in training the things that, in my opinion, are the basics that you need to absolutely dominate to play as a centre-back in this league.”
There’s certainly no doubt over how Arteta feels about Saliba now, with the Arsenal manager probably more likely to be accused of selecting the centre-back too often.
That was a big reason behind the addition of Cristhian Mosquera over the summer, giving Arteta opportunities to rest Saliba without Arsenal’s back line falling apart.
With a manager that believes in him, a strong defensive partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes, and a solid backup allowing him to rest when necessary, there are plenty of reasons for Saliba to extend that contract with Arsenal now.