Chelsea’s Malang Sarr interview sheds light on Arsenal’s William Saliba reluctance

Saliba frustration

William Saliba has conducted a number of interviews, voicing his frustrations with the lack of opportunities afforded to him at Arsenal. He spoke of the fact that Mikel Arteta saw him in just a handful of games, and ‘judged’ him prematurely. The stopper added that he would have liked to have played more, but was assured by Arteta that he was not yet ready.

“He (Arteta) judged me on two-and-a-half matches,” Saliba told RMC Sport. “I would have liked for him to play me more. But he told me I wasn’t ready.

“I was waiting for him to give me a chance, but football is like that.”

When asked about Saliba’s situation in November, prior to his departure on loan in January, Arteta revealed that the Gunners had attempted to find him a route out of the club temporarily in the summer, to play matches. He also admitted to being ‘fed up’ with the situation.

“I’m fed up with the situation because as you could see, we tried to find a way in the last few days [of the transfer window] to give him some football,” Arteta said.

“I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him and send him on loan to Saint-Etienne. For many reasons, that didn’t happen and he didn’t have that transition year.

Since arriving at Nice, Saliba has performed very well. He has become a regular in the club’s backline, and formed a strong partnership with fellow new signing Jean-Clair Todibo.

Sarr sheds light

Chelsea also saw a young Frenchman arrive in the summer from Ligue 1. The Blues acquired the services of former Nice centre-back Malang Sarr. Similarly to Arsenal, Chelsea had an abundance of centre-halves at their disposal, and added to that further by bringing in Thiago Silva from PSG.

With opportunities limited in London, and the Ligue 1 season having been curtailed early, Sarr was honest about his situation at Stamford Bridge, and admitted a loan exit was the right decision.

“I was training with Chelsea before I got loaned. The loan was part of the plan. I had to be honest with myself, my season ended in March and I wasn’t going to be successful right away with Chelsea,” said Sarr.

“It was the perfect solution because I wanted to do a season at a top club like Porto, to be good and then later take a place at Chelsea.”

With Saliba having not only seen his 2019/20 season ended early, but also suffered with a number of injury problems, perhaps Sarr’s insight could shed light on why Arteta was of the belief that Saliba was too far off the pace to come straight into Arsenal’s first-team.

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This article was edited by Conor Laird.

Source: 101greatgoals.com