Zenith wrote:
Where's my thread...?Tony Adams wrote:Zenith wrote:
Zenith wrote:Where's my thread...?Tony Adams wrote:Zenith wrote:
thebigbangtheo wrote:I remember once being part of a 20 strong group of friends celebrating an occasion at a restaurant, where instead of getting my rib-eye steak cooked medium rare as ordered, I got it served rare. No biggie, as upon making the waitress aware, less than 5 minutes later I was tucking into a perfectly cooked steak meal. Lovely.
In having viewed a fair few highlights and a couple of games from Ligue 1 involving Nice so as to better scrutinise Saliba than YouTube reels are able to portray, I find myself having changed my stance regarding Arteta's action to send him back to France instead of accommodating him into the squad of his new club.
If you have the inclination to seek out and view any of his matches and highlights from last season and compare them to those from this season, I would be rather surprised if the consensus wasn't that he'd shown signs of improvement by now looking like the real deal and at the very least much better than Holding, possibly Mari too whilst adding another worry line to Luiz as well. And I won't try and add weight (no pun intended) to the argument by suggesting that he even looks more of a physical specimen too, as I'm not sure if that's just down to the more stylish and flattering Nice kit compared to St. Etienne's.
In short, it now appears to me that Arteta also found that his prime cut of French beef was just a little too under cooked for his liking and had it sent back to the kitchen to spend two or three more minutes in the pan to ensure that it was now to his liking, well done.
Ultimately, we won't move beyond speculation, conspiracy and conjecture of the matter until next season when the proof of the pudding will definitely be in its eating and maybe, just maybe, it might be acknowledged that Arteta actually got something right.
Özim wrote:He’ll have 2 years left on his contract when he comes back, we’ve wasted 2 years of it and now next year we’ll be in a situation where we either move him on or sign him on a new contract.
As it is he might fancy moving on seeing how he’s been treated. I still think it was a shocking decision to send him out on loan.
Zenith wrote:Özim wrote:He’ll have 2 years left on his contract when he comes back, we’ve wasted 2 years of it and now next year we’ll be in a situation where we either move him on or sign him on a new contract.
As it is he might fancy moving on seeing how he’s been treated. I still think it was a shocking decision to send him out on loan.
We screwed up not sending Saliba out on loan six months earlier than we ended up doing; not two years. A substantial blunder, no doubt, but it's a stretch to suggest we've wasted two years of his contract.
At Arsenal he was never going to play anywhere near as much with as than he did/does with Saint-Étienne and Nice where, when fit, he was/is consistently one of the first names on the team sheet.
aniym wrote:We shouldn't be extending Luiz' deal any further, especially if it hinders game time for a £28m signing.
We're particularly weak at defending against crosses; Holding is easily outjumped, and Gabriel sometimes just stands there, doesn't try to get the ball. Saliba would be a big asset there.