‘What is he doing?’, ‘must be sold’: Some Arsenal fans really not happy with £27m man

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A number of Arsenal fans have taken to Twitter to discuss William Saliba’s comments about his lack of game time under Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.

The Emirates Stadium side beat Tottenham to the signing of the 19-year-old centre-back in the summer of 2019 in a £27million deal from Saint-Etienne.

Arsenal loaned Saliba back to the Ligue 1 club for the entirety of the 2019-20 season as part of the deal, where he made 17 appearances and reached the French Cup final.

Despite being tipped for a successful breakthrough this term, the centre-back didn’t make a single senior appearance for the Gunners, having to make do with games for the Under-23s.

Saliba’s lack of game time brought about a loan spell to Ligue 1 side Nice last month, and he has done superbly in his six appearances thus far for Les Aiglons.

So much so, in fact, that he was voted the team’s Player of the Month in January.

Now, Saliba has spoken of how he feels Arteta judged him after “two-and-a-half games” and was waiting for the manager to give him a chance, but the Spaniard felt he wasn’t ready.

“It is clear that so much has changed in the last year,” the defender told RMC, as translated by Gooner Talk.

“When I saw that the coach changed a lot changed for me too. In this year there has been a lot of change in my personal life as well.

“He judged me on 2 and a half matches. I would have liked for him to play me more. But he told me I wasn’t ready. I was waiting for him to give me a chance, but football is like that.

“When I initially came to Arsenal the league looked very good so I showed up to training and wanted to train on my own to show the coach I was ready.

“I am happy now, I want to play for Nice. The idea when you’re part of a team is a better feeling for me.”

And some Arsenal fans weren’t pleased with Saliba’s comments: