Rio Ferdinand’s ‘waste of money’ Arsenal jibe comes back to haunt him

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William Saliba is enjoying the season of his career with Arsenal. He’s one of the first names on Mikel Arteta’s teamsheet and has played a key role in the Gunners making the Premier League top spot their own. But the young defender hasn’t had everything go his way until this point and had to convince some big names in the game that he is indeed the real deal.

Back in 2021, Saliba had just returned to Arsenal from a loan spell with his former club Saint Etienne.

His campaign had been disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic with Saliba only making 15 appearances before La Ligue was cancelled.

Gunners boss Mikel Arteta decided the youngster needed at least another loan spell away from Arsenal in order to mature and packed him off to Nice for six months.

As he did so Ferdinand spoke out about Unai Emery’s £27million signing, labelling the defender who joined in 2019 a “waste of money”.

He told his FIVE YouTube channel: “I still think Arsenal need a top centre half, all the problems stem from that. You’ve got a great nucleus of young players, there are seven or eight young players there who everyone is talking about.

“But you’ve got to put the pieces around them and that’s the big problem. That’s been the big problem with recruitment at Arsenal for so long. Saliba, what’s happened to him? It’s a waste of money it seems at the minute. I don’t know what’s happened.”

Saliba impressed on loan at Nice and embarked on a second temporary spell way from Arsenal to Marseille after his six months on the south coast of France.

At Marseille, Saliba was named Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and made the Team of the Year. He also helped the French club qualify for the Champions League.

Upon his return to Arsenal in the summer, Arteta decided that Saliba had grown up enough to challenge for the Gunners’ first team and started him in the 2-0 win over Crystal Palace on the opening day of the season.

Saliba put in a man-of-the-match display alongside Gabriel and quickly made the centre-back position his own, with £50million signing Ben White being forced to play out right.

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Former Arsenal and Chelsea defender William Gallas was asked for his thoughts on Saliba back in December and spoke highly of the youngster who he interestingly compared to the man that had once doubted him, Ferdinand.

“He reminds me of Rio Ferdinand and has the same style as him,” Gallas told Genting Casino.

“He is still young and can still improve. It is in his hands; if he works hard to reach the very highest level possible, he can do it. He has to train with players who are world-class, as he will learn a lot.

“He had a great first part of the season, and although he did not play at the World Cup, he will have learnt a lot, especially from Raphael Varane. Hopefully, he is now fresh for Arsenal.”

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