Are Arsenal still a selling club?

Real Madrid grab Saliba

The noise keeps getting louder. Real Madrid don’t care what they have to pay, they want William Saliba and seemingly believe they will get him. ND Sports management (his agents) may be playing around to grab a higher contract from Arsenal or maybe the player wants to go to the official best team in the world ever. That, at least, is indisputable, the Royals from Madrid have won more major trophies than anyone else. Arsenal are a class below.

Can Sailba resist this stadium?

But of course, that is just history. All the trophies of the past do not give you a right to win any now. Arsenal may be about to step into a period of sustained success and Real Madrid may be due a fallow period. No one knows the future.

Man City the losers

For most of my time as a football supporter the term Manchester City was deemed to signify losers. That was because they were in the shadow of Manchester United and close neighbours Liverpool, both of whom had astonishing eras of success. If you, or your company, were low achievers, we would say, we can’t do that, we are Manchester City, not Manchester United. And despite City’s seeming decline this season, they have now managed to be the best team in the world in recent years.  And they are probably not done yet.

City were once a synonym for losers

They were not in the class of Arsenal and even had a few relegations during my time. They can now attract the best players but can Arsenal? Most of our greats were created at Arsenal. Even Dennis Bergkamp struggled at Inter before being signed by the Gunners. We have never bought a Ronaldo or a Messi, a Neymar or an Mbappe. That has to change if we are to step up to the next level. We are never in the running for the truly top players.

Is Saliba the New Anelka?

There is a parallel to the Saliba situation. Nicolas Anelka was a prodigious young talent in the late ‘90’s for Arsenal. All the top players reckoned he was unbelievably talented. Even Ian Wright recognised it was time to leave as he couldn’t compete. Anelka had his family as his agents at the time and I feel they pressurised him into accepting the offer from Madrid. He was a bit younger than Saliba is now and Saliba does have a professional agency looking after him. But the parallels are there.

Nicolas Anelka destroyed his career by going to Real Madrid

Both are French, born in March, both French internationals and both took time to mature as players. We all thought Arteta didn’t like Saliba because he kept sending him out on loan. That was definitely not true as Arteta has him as a first starter. Wenger loved Anelka and wanted him to develop more at Arsenal but the allure of the biggest team in the world swayed Anelka. He wasn’t ready for the unique pressures that came at the Bernabéu and he never managed to become a world great.

Or is Saliba different?

Could the same happen to Saliba? The world of the Galactico is unforgiving. You must win and you must play well, and you must gel with your teammates. It can become a graveyard for players. It was for Anelka. He kept moving around, with top clubs and not so top clubs all hoping he can recreate the spark he had shown for Wenger and Arsenal. He could not do  so consistently and he even ended up with Sam Allardyce at Bolton.

To be fair, it is harder to be a striker. You must score all the time. It is not enough that your team is winning, if you don’t score. A defender has no such expectations.

Can Saliba thrive in the white hot atmosphere of the Bernabeu?

A defender, however, is very reliant on his defence to be good. If only one defender is good then the defence are poor, and get collective blame. Saliba has, in Gabriel, White, Timber and Calafiori plus David Raya in goal, a top class unit around him. He has formed a telepathic understanding with Gabriel which may be difficult to replicate elsewhere.

Or is there a masterstroke in place?

The big question is, in comparing the two, is that Wenger pulled off a masterstroke. He sold Anelka for £23m and bought Thierry Henry for £11m and had money left over to put together what was the best training ground in the world at London Colney. Can Arteta do the same? What would Saliba be worth? I have heard £83m was offered but that surely is a joke if he is indeed the best defender in the world? £150m sounds more right to me. Suppose Calafiori, White or Timber could recreate the great partnership of Saliba/Gabriel, or someone from the academy, or they have their eye on a brilliant player somewhere who they could get for half Saliba’s price. In that case, a Wengerlike masterstroke will have been pulled.

Even Dennis Bergkamp's career had taken a bit of a nosedive when we bought him

You must remember that we didn’t want Anelka to go. On his day he was unplayable. What we didn’t know was how badly he needed to stay for the sake of his career. Nor did he or his family.

Is that the case with Saliba? Will his career nosedive with a move to Madrid? I would say probably not. However, we have seen it so many times, a young player or even an experienced player goes to Real Madrid or Barcelona and their career flounders. Aubameyang comes to mind as does Alexis Sanchez in the latter category.

One advantage we have is Martin Odegaard. He can explain everything about life at the Bernabeu and how your talent may not be recognized. If Saliba is genuinely considering such a move, then he must talk to his captain. However, I am pretty certain that Saliba will not be one who fails. If he goes, he will do well. We will lose our defensive wall that has brought us so close to the top unless Arteta has a backup plan that involves a better player such as Wenger had. I can’t see that, though.

Are the Kroenkes strong enough to take the next step?

Ultimately, it all comes down to Arsenal. Are the Kroenkes serious? Do they see Arsenal as the new world champions as Abramovich did at Chelsea, and Sheik Mansour did at Man City? Or are we still the same old Arsenal and we allow clubs to prove they are bigger than us by taking our best players?

Is Stan Kroenke ambitious enough to make us the greatest?

I say we must take the next step. We must be in the market no matter what player comes available. We must keep our top players. Or we stay at the second level – good but not great. And that is not up to Arteta and his team. That is down to the Kroenkes. The near future will decide who the Kroenkes are. I hope it is that they have the ambition to make Arsenal the greatest. If they don’t, then our dreams are just that, dreams.