William Saliba Speaks Bluntly With Fellow Arsenal Outcast Matteo Guendouzi
William Saliba has risked the wrath of Mikel Arteta by describing himself as having been ‘locked up’ in social media exchange with fellow Arsenal outcast Matteo Guendouzi. Much was expected of the teenage defender upon his return from Saint Etienne where he spent last season on loan.
Saliba is still, however, waiting to make his senior debut despite having signed for the Gunners in a £27million deal over 18 months ago. The 19-year-old was not included in Arsenal’s Premier League or Europa League squad and has instead been forced to settle for the occasional outing for the club’s Under-23 side.
Arsenal are currently considering whether or not to loan out Saliba in January with the player keen to return to France in an attempt to relaunch his career in the same manor Guendouzi has done at Hertha Berlin.
The France international was exiled by Arteta following an unseemly altercation with Brighton’s Neal Maupey during last season’s defeat at the Amex and was shipped out to the Bundesliga club during the summer transfer window.
Guendouzi continued his fine recent form with a superb strike in Saturday’s 1-1 draw against Borussia Monchengladbach and Saliba responded to his compatriot’s Instagram post, celebrating his first goal for his current club. Nicolas Pepe chimed in with a response to Saliba which read ‘this is your problem, you comment on everything’ to which the out of favour defender replied ‘Hahaha, I’m sending well wishes to the brother that was locked up like me.’
That sentiment is unlikely to wash with Arteta who has also frozen out the likes of Mesut Ozil this season. The under-fire Arsenal boss did, however, credit Saliba with having made significant recent progress, despite his sending off for the Under-23s against AFC Wimbledon in midweek. ‘To be fair he has made massive improvements in the last few months,’ said Arteta.
‘It’s a really tricky situation for him. But as I’ve mentioned before, we designed a pathway for him but a lot of things happened to him in his personal life and professionally as well.’
