Morning, a quick Friday blog for you.
There’s only one place to begin today and that’s the news that emerged yesterday about William Saliba. The French international has reportedly agreed terms on a new long-term deal, one which will extend his current deal (which expires in 2027), to 2030.
I don’t have to tell you how important this is, there’s nothing to say other than this is fantastic news because he is one of the best players in the world in his position. He’s still only 24, which is crazy when you consider when the best period for central defenders tends to be, and the fact he has committed his peak years to Arsenal says a lot.
The mood, right now, veers wildly from game to game, which I sort of understand, and it’s a conversation we went into in more depth on yesterday’s Arsecast. Arsenal fans are desperate for success, having seen the team come really close on a couple of occasions, and still finish second last time out on the back of what most would admit was a sub-par campaign. There were reasons for that, but the bottom line it was below expectation – for fans and the club alike, I’m sure.
The discussion after the Man City game was tinged with frustration, regret and a certain amount of anger (and I think Tim touches well on the start to our season in his latest column). If we don’t win it’s a disaster, and even if we do we don’t win well enough. It feels like every team performance and every individual performance needs to be 10/10 to convince people were a good side, when the evidence of that isn’t in a single game, it’s the last three years.
I have concerns, I’m sure you have some too, but that’s normal for fans. When we don’t win, it looks like we might never win again. If we don’t score, we don’t know where the goals are going to come from. By the way, only Liverpool have scored more than Arsenal in the league this season, outdoing us by a whopping 1 goal – albeit the five game sample size is quite small at the moment. It just feels like everything is at the extremes right now. And look, I get it to an extent because the pain of missing out on a title when you come close more than once is acute, and people start to worry. Worry becomes angst which becomes anger, then when you’re writing a blog you think about using the word ‘begets’ and you realise shit has gone biblical.
Has our start to the season been terrible? Far from it, but that’s how it’s being presented to us from certain quarters. Hurled into our faces non-stop from media outlets who are like a dog with a bone. Is there room for improvement? Of course, significant room, but that’s why we went out this summer and spent £250m on eight new players. Sometimes things take a little time to come together, but the patience levels are at zero in some cases.
Anyway, my point is, that despite external hubbub, for want of a better term, I think the Saliba contract news is an indication that internally things are calmer, at least. If a player as good as he is is of a mind that he can’t fulfill his ambitions at Arsenal, he leaves. It’s as simple as that. Contract negotiations go nowhere, time goes on, and 12 months out the club have to decide whether to hang onto him for one more season, or sell and get some revenue in for a player who could leave for free at the end of his deal.
There isn’t a club in Europe who wouldn’t want Saliba, and yet he’s decided that he wants to stay with us. With these players, with this manager, with this club. That tells you a lot about what our best players believe we’re capable of and how things are being run. We might have our doubts, and perhaps not unreasonable ones in certain cases, but guys like Saliba, like Gabriel who signed a new deal earlier in the summer, obviously have sufficient faith in themselves and their teammates to keep plugging away at Arsenal until the success we crave arrives.
Let’s not also forget how much these guys must want it. Finishing second three seasons in a row must be maddening. An itch that needs to be scratched. That has to be scratched. And the only way to do it is to go one better. Honestly, if someone like Saliba had decided to explore his options and go elsewhere, I’d be really worried. The fact he’s going to stay is – not just great news because of his quality and the quality of his partnership with Gabriel – but it’s reassuring news too.
I don’t know if everyone will feel that way, but it’s certainly how I feel. Arsenal have done a great job with contracts in recent years, and it demonstrates it’s easier to keep players when they are part of a competitive team. When we lost our best players in the past, it wasn’t just down to money on offer from other clubs, it’s because they knew their chances of winning big trophies were better elsewhere. That was a painful reality to accept, but deep down it’s one that was fundamentally true. It’s not to excuse behaviour which wasn’t always right, but that was the core of the issue.
It’s not true now though, hence new deals for Saliba, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly, Nwaneri etc, and why players want to come and join. Eight of them this summer who wanted to be part of this current iteration of Arsenal. It’s why I feel confident we can agree new terms with Bukayo Saka, even if there’s still some work to do on that front. I think the ingredients are there, Arteta’s recipe still needs a bit of fine tuning (seasoning?!!), but a player like William Saliba committing his best years to Arsenal is a sign that we’re bubbling away nicely.
Right, I’ll leave it there. The Arsecast is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet, and keep an eye out for our preview podcast on Patreon a bit later on.
