Saliba selected for the 18-man French Olympic squad.

William Saliba episode 459 written by David Simon. .... Arsenal fans micro analyse Salibas nans Bowel movements for evidence of things they can get angry about.

More baffled than angry. It’s as weird as the Clive Allen signing.

I see Arteta as quite George Graham-esque in his mindset. George had very little truck with certain individuals if they weren't seen as pulling their weight and bombed put certain names when he first arrived. Maybe, just maybe, the issue with Saliba isn't ability but attitude and that's what he needs to address.

Excellent parallel there, LTG. (A circuitous route to get Sansom? Okay, probably not.) Yes, it's really weird. It's ridiculous to pretend otherwise.

It really isn’t. He’s what 19 ? Is it not logical that the coaching staff simply think he’s simply not ready when it comes to a make or break season like the one in prospect.

He videoed his teammate whacking one out in the changing room and got into trouble for it. There’s some evidence to this line of thought.

To be honest I have no problem with the disciplinarian route. So many players have treated our club like a luxury hotel recently

Kieran Tierney signs a new deal despite the saliba situation.

Tierney: "I love the manager and working with him is an absolute joy."

The sheer misery and mindset of our fans doesn’t seem to have affected him yet.

HAHA...apparently Arsenal have been mimicking my girlfriend at the car dealer.

Obviously based on his Arsenal youtube highlights.

Perhaps but there's been no hint that was it. With Guendouzi it was mentioned. We've seen incidents with other players regarding their attitude. I would imagine we'd have heard the same of Saliba. Again, it could be but we seem to hear about the wrong attitude.

The frustrating thing is we aren't hearing anything specific.

I remain baffled. None of what has unfolded throughout the entire saga has looked logical to me.

Equally baffling is splashing £50m on a defender. It would seem to take a massive chunk out of our depleted funds.

Hopefully we can fix all the rather more obvious problems as well.

This ongoing Saliba saga is ridiculous. He's 19, so is Saka. One very obviously favoured over the other fits in with Arteta's plans, vision, style, etc. Attitude issues...hmmm. Saliba's attitude good enough for an Olympics call up.
Saliba, stop wasting your time with Arsenal. Move on to better opportunities.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/paininthea ... eason/amp/

Ghandi
Mandela
Jesus
Saliba

In that order ...

To be fair it is rather odd that Arsenal’s ninth most expensive signing of all time is in the situation that he finds himself.

Some interesting quotes in this piece. You note that they are quotes.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... s-24401547

Simon Jordan is to football knowledge what Westlife are to music. Shouldn’t need pointing out.

I didn’t open Gaz’s link but from your mention of Simon Jordan, I’m assuming it was about him advising Ben White to not join Arsenal because the club is ‘all over the place’. Everyone should know what that expression means, and I’m not sure I would argue with Jordan about it.

I realise it’s relevant who else might be interested in him as Arsenal are a better team and bigger club than Brighton, and pay much higher wages. But Jordan saying Arsenal as a club is ‘all over the place’? Currently he certainly isn’t going to get any argument from me on that.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football ... dium=email

Rumours are the Xhaka to Roma deal is done for 18 million euros.
Feels a bit cheap considering what we’ll have to pay to replace him. But this is a player who we’ve had for all the time we’ve been out of the champions league.

Sorry Rich, but you do come out with some odd things sometimes. Factually correct as far as qualifying for it is concerned. But you can also say that about Saka being in the first team as well, and Tierne, and Leno, and Aubameyang.

He did say all of the time that we’ve been out. So certainly not Saka or Tierney.

Having a player in the middle of the park with such a lack of mobility has been a massive part of us dropping out of the European spaces. Your kidding yourself or don’t understand the sport of you don’t get this

Fair enough.

Although perhaps not revealing as big a misunderstanding of the sport as a fan who’s been round quite a few years saying Xhaka is the worst Arsenal player he’s ever seen?

I'd forgotten that TG post, Bernard. That was a comedy classic.

Nope never said that.

I said considering the fee and appearances your misquoting me deliberately

I remember that ridiculous post as well.

What's funny about your post is that it quite subtly suggests that women aren't as intelligent as men. It's the subtlety that makes it very funny and reinforces how clever men like you (and me, obviously) actually are. Good one, AG.

Even considering the fee and appearances it was a ridiculous post. Why should players be blamed for transfer fees paid anyway? It’s the buying club who decides to pay it. Xhaka or his agent didn’t hold a gun to Wenger’s head instructing him to pay it. There’s been nothing wrong with his appearance record either. Every manager he’s played for here has rated his performances highly enough to keep picking him.

I won’t be bothered if he leaves. However, as I’ve said before I think overall Xhaka deserves to be seen as a good signing. I reckon DHD was spot on not too long ago when he said words to the effect that we routinely look a worse team when he doesn’t play.

Poor diddums how horrible for you

He simply isn’t a success we are selling for half the fee we bought him for when we paid more than kante for him. That type of fee should guarantee extreme quality at the time.

He’s not moving to a big club meaning the rest of the football world isn’t impressed by him either. He’s been a collective disaster when we needed a midfield dynamo

I remember it too. Not horrible, just terribly silly (even with the qualifiers).

At least partly because he was 5 years younger when we bought him?

My own view is that Xhaka has suffered at Arsenal from the lack of quality around him.

Wales playing with good pace going forward. Bale looking dangerous whenever he has the ball.

Both teams playing high tempo football. Good to watch highly driven teams.

What a well worked goal from Denmark. And brilliantly scored.

Danish players doing a lot of off the ball running. That was key to them getting the goal.

Decaf is right about Xhaka’s age being part of the equation why he may go for less money than he joined. It isn’t difficult to understand the relevance of age. If Bayern sold Lewandowski this summer, does anyone think they’d get anything like as much as Tottenham will get for Kane if they sell him? Of course Bayern wouldn’t, even though Lewandowski and Kane are strikers at a similar level. Lewandowski is five years older and fast approaching being past his peak than a still at his peak Kane.

Also, the transfer market is depressed and it’s silly to pretend otherwise. That will influence any drop in Xhaka’s selling price as well as his age. Some clubs can so will spend heavily to get players. Hence if City do get Kane, I strongly suspect Tottenham would have insisted on even more for him had they sold when the transfer market wasn’t depressed.

Wales lost all mojo after going a goal down. Denmark running all over them