Arsenal defender, William Saliba has opened up on Mikel Arteta’s attitude towards him, insisting the manager’s snub helped to bring him(Saliba) back to reality.
Saliba joined Arsenal from Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2019 for a fee in the region of £27m.
But fast forward two years, the defender has not made any league appearance for the Gunners after being dumped out of the squads by Arteta.
He was only able to play in the club’s Under 23s before being shipped out on loan to Saint-Etienne and then on six-month loan to Nice.
Saliba would then leave north London again to Ligue 1 in July 2021, joining Marseille for the 2021-2022 campaign.
There are hard times,’ Saliba told Eurosport. “I hadn’t played a game for six months.
You have to fight in a career. We must take that as a lesson to go further. It gave me a little slap to say: ‘You are nobody!’ You can be bought for 30 million euros, arrive in a club and we put you aside.
I took this experience by being positive. I feed on it. I know what it’s like not to play for six months.
Today, I want to play every game. It puts the ideas back in place.
Before arriving at Arsenal, I said to myself: ‘Who am I going to play with?” And then you are not even in the group in the Premier League.
It gives you a good slap, it feels good. It brings you back to the reality.
I’m on loan,’ he added. ‘But I pretend I’m there for many years. I’m not thinking about returning to Arsenal [right now].
I give myself to Marseille. I don’t think about what will happen afterwards.”
