Right around the World Cup (and thus transfer window as well for this year) there were a ton of conversations around best/most valuable young players in the game and I kept feeling like Saliba was being critically underrated and underrepresented. You have (at the time) a 21 year old CB who's the lynchpin of the defense of the top team in the Premier League and he was barely making anybody's lists. I know everything tends to overrate offensive players, but Van Dijk was sold for 75M pounds to Liverpool 5 years ago. Prices have exploded since then and he's seemingly rated as a 50M player. When he missed his first few games, I was making comments over and over in the game threads of how badly he was missed and if he's out for an extended period that'll be why Arsenal loses the premier league to City.
It’s two years in a row where their lack of depth and a key injury killed the team’s momentum.
Last year Partey this year Saliba. And Gabriel Jesus getting hurt wasn’t exactly nothing..
Saliba is obviously the lynchpin of the defense.. he makes up for a ton of mistakes.
Arteta has improved the overall quality of the squad pretty immensely.. and I think they’re about a year ahead of where they should be.
The future is pretty bright.. add two or three players and run it back. Not even sure where they should add.. probably another center d and mid? With champions league games next year they’re going to need to figure out how to rotate players.. Saka, Ødegaard, Martinelli can’t play every game.. same with Xhaka and Partey.
Should be fun to see what happens though
The Saliba injury was definitely a huge blow. If I'm being honest, I think we're still underdogs to win the title even if he stays healthy as we probably still lose at the Etihad and drop points at Anfield. But we'd certainly be in much better shape than we are now.
Back injuries are pretty scary, you really don't know how Saliba is going to recover, whether he is going to be a player that whose playing time needs to be managed for a couple years, etc. The whole situation has definitely elevated RCB for me as an off-season priority
This is how I would approach the offseason:
Buy
-CM who can take Xhaka's role but also cover the 6. The big target here appears to be Declan Rice.
-RCB who can play a high line and is good in possession. Ideally someone who in a pinch could also play RB in a Ben White mold. We've been linked with Marc Guehi recently.
-Left footed winger who can cover Saka and do a passing impression of his playing style, so our movements can stay similar as a team. Ideally someone that can play across the front line so they're not just a Saka backup. Moussa Diaby is often mentioned as a target but he seems kind of expensive for what we need out of this player.
Sell
Balogun. I just don't see where he fits, a loan might also work but his contract runs out in 2025 so we'd be setting ourselves up for a tough situation.
Holding. Great guy, great teammate, great head of hair, can't play our football. But he's a legit PL CB who would do fine at any mid-to-lower table side that sits deep and plays without the ball a lot.
Tavares. If Marseille or any other team offers 10m, take the money and run.
Sambi. Best for all parties to just move on. Maybe Kompany will want to reunite with him at Burnley.
Mari. I think this is already done, with the obligation to buy him kicking in with Monza staying up in Serie A.
Pepe. Loan him again for his last year or some kind of contract termination, just don't bring him back.
Cedric, Runarrson, Maitland Niles. See above.
I feel like if we can pull something like this off we'll essentially have the team Arteta wants.
