However you try to dress it up the Mavropanos fee is a joke unless there is a 50% sell-on clause.

Might as well chuck in Saliba as well. Buy one get one free.

According to the club website its a loan deal......... no mention of any obligation to buy

Hi Hodd,

Have you heard anything on Saliba?

£50million sounds like a lot of money for a cash strapped club, I can only assume this is the first of many Arsenal transfers this summer presumably financed by more loans.

50M....so is that half the transfer budget gone...supposing.
Unless it's closer to 300M. KSE allowing 3 00M...

If anyone is interested in how Ben White compares to Saliba, Gabriel and Tapsoba then this youtube video looks at stats for various things such as clearances, passes, duels etc, and an articulate Brighton fan gives his opinion on White. Based on this video (I did skip through a lot of it) it seems that he's a very good player but not neccesarily better than Saliba.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpPWlOQHtkw

https://www.espn.com.sg/soccer/uefa-cha ... mpetitions

I applaud this. Always thought of it as a stupid rule.

White is a right footer as was Holding. He could also cover right back or slot in there where left footers would not, or never have to date, or have they?

Oi thicko opposing lock downs that have been proved to not work, check out the US, doesn't make one a covid denier. Are you really that thick?

Did you appreciate the compliment? Being likened to a 12 year old, oh dear

The difficult thing to judge if you’re signing a player from a lower league club is whether simply being in a better team shows them to be a better player.
Think of Robertson, Winaldum and Jota at Liverpool. I think people thought £40m for Jota was a big fee for someone who had talent and pace but was not very inconsistent for wolves and didn’t seem like he could challenge salah, Mané, firminho - but he hit the ground running.

In a defenders case their stats on things like passing might look weak in a team where they don’t have much of the ball or the instructions are to play more directly.

The skill is identifying those players where the club their at is slightly holding back their potential.

Not as stupid as its predecessor. That was tossing a coin. I remember watching one match where the coin got stuck vertically in the mud and had to be tossed again.

Nothing that would add any insight on what is in the press

Do you believe that it is purely down to his ability or is something else going on?. I mean he went to France and ended up being a contender for being in the team of the season despite only playing 6 months. He's clearly a rough diamond but the potential seems obvious.

I also read that one of the younger players at Arsenal reckons he's the best CB at the club. Now, I know that the opinion of a young player at a club is not necessarily anything to go by but players generally know who is good and who isn't.

Only four players made more interceptions than Ben White in the 2020-21 Premier League.

Only three teams made fewer interceptions than Arsenal last season.

Of the 4 players to make more interceptions that White, 2 of them were Bissouma and Neves who we’ve been linked with. Interesting

Afternoon Rich. Therefore, a minimum of two of the five players who made the most interceptions were, from what you say, Brighton players. Namely, Bissouma and White.

What is also interesting is that Brighton (16th with 41 points) finished eight places and 20 points below Arsenal (8th with 61 points), despite having at least (apart from Neves I don’t know who the others are) two of the five players with the most interceptions.

Furthermore, if only three teams had fewer interceptions than Arsenal, at the very least Arsenal finished above nine of the twelve sides with more interceptions. Perhaps even more than that, as I’ve solely gone by your post without looking the identity of the three teams with fewer interceptions up. Theoretically of course, any or all of the three with fewer interceptions could have been one or more of the seven sides finishing above Arsenal.

I’m not saying making interceptions is unimportant. But what my analysis might well suggest is that there are more, arguably far more, important factors contributing to the success or otherwise of teams.

Well, Brighton's problems were further forward. Their 'goals against', 46, was much better than that of teams around them in the league.

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.