Special report: Guendouzi is Arsenals past, but what about Saliba?

In the chaos, William Saliba offered Marseille clarity.

Their match against Nice had entered the final five minutes delicately poised, with Saliba and his home team leading by a goal to nil.

The stakes were high: two Mediterranean-coast neighbours, second and third in the Ligue 1 table, fighting for a Champions League place. This is a heated rivalry: earlier this season, the reverse fixture has been abandoned after projectiles from the crowd sparked a mass brawl involving players, supporters and staff.

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The history and the stakes made for a febrile, incendiary atmosphere. It is a tinder box — the blue and white shirts of the Marseille crowd punctuated by the red of glowing flares, casting the stands in the colours of the French tricolore.

An enamoured Saliba has described the Stade Velodrome as “a volcano”. It is easy to see how a personality like Matteo Guendouzi might thrive here — how he might feed off the passion and the noise. Saliba is a counterpoint, a cool head in a cauldron of emotion.

And then, the tension was punctured.

As the game paused for a substitution, a Marseille fan broke onto the field, collected a loose ball and tapped into an empty net. The crowd were elated: compared to what had happened at Nice’s Allianz Riviera stadium in October, this was a triviality — a moment of levity on the way to a stirring victory.

Some players afforded themselves a smile, others simply seemed grateful for the opportunity to take a breather. The reaction of Saliba, however, was striking.

He turned to his fellow defenders and goalkeeper — all senior to him — and pointed furiously to his temples. His words may have been unintelligible above the crowd, but the message was clear: No distractions. We have a game to win.

It was an act, undeniably, of leadership.

At the time, Saliba was just 20 — he turned 21 a few days later. But those who know him best say this has always been his way. Ever since he broke into the Saint-Etienne first team at 17, he has carried himself with a certain authority.

Within a few minutes, Marseille had the reward for retaining their concentration. A breakaway attack led to Cedric Bakambu, who nods home a goal that sealed the victory. Saliba tore the length of the field to celebrate in front of the baying fans, thrusting his hands up and then down, pointing at the ground as if to say, “This is Marseille. This is our pitch. This is our night.”

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The drama did not end there.

Marseille conceded a late consolation, a set-piece goal from a free kick conceded by Saliba. Chasing his man down in the right channel, he lunged in clumsily and was booked. Those few minutes arguably sum up where Saliba is at this point in his development: a precocious leader, yet still a young defender — a player with great potential, yet much still to learn.

At full time, Saliba embraced his Marseille team-mate Guendouzi. These are two hugely promising young players, both part of Didier Deschamps’ most recent France squad. Both players are technically on loan from Arsenal, although there is a tacit acknowledgement on both sides of the channel that Guendouzi will remain in Provence and not return to north London. The midfielder’s loan arrangement came with an obligatory purchase clause in the region of €11 million (£9.2 million), provided certain on-field criteria were met. That deal will be formally completed in the summer.

Guendouzi, then, appears to belong to Arsenal’s past.

Many Arsenal fans hope that Saliba could yet belong to their future.

This week’s call-up to the national team, though, presents a potential obstacle to that.

After the Nice match, Guendouzi and Saliba shared a private jet north to Paris — Guendouzi to join up with Deschamps’ full squad, Saliba expecting to be with the under-21s. The following day, however, the young centre-half was asked to join the senior set-up. For Saliba, it is reward for his recent form — and proof that performances in Ligue 1 are sufficient to win the approval of Deschamps. It is also a sign that he is close; a credible challenger for a place in the world champions’ squad eight months out from the World Cup.

That is too great a prize to ignore.

When Saliba and his representatives decide on his future at the end of the season, it will be at the forefront of their minds.

Guendouzi appears utterly at home in Marseille. There is something about this club — the passion, the colour, the glamour — that fits him perfectly.

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It was not a given. The Velodrome crowd are notoriously discerning, and some feared they may not immediately take to a former Paris Saint-Germain academy player. Guendouzi’s personality, however, quickly won him a new set of supporters.

“The reason Marseille fans have really taken to Guendouzi is that, for them, the club is about passion and commitment,” explains France-based football writer Matt Spiro. “They’re two things that are really deep-rooted in the club’s identity. What they don’t accept is players who aren’t giving their all — and they’re not above turning on players if that’s what they see — but Guendouzi was a hit almost immediately.”

There is a chant, a mantra often repeated in the Velodrome, which calls upon the players to “mouillez le maillot”. It means “wet the kit” — it implores the players to expend enough energy to leave the field soaked in sweat. Few players embody that idea more obviously than Guendouzi.

He also struck up an immediate bond with Marseille’s manager, Jorge Sampaoli. Guendouzi tends to be a divisive figure among coaches. Although he clearly did not see eye to eye with Mikel Arteta at Arsenal, he was very close to the current manager’s predecessor Unai Emery — and Guendouzi and Sampaoli enjoy a similarly close relationship.

“Guendouzi is Sampaoli’s man on the pitch,” says Spiro. “They both have that way of wearing their heart on their sleeve, and openly displaying their passion.”

Earlier this month, Guendouzi explained his admiration for the Argentinian. “In the first discussions I had with him before signing at Marseille, in his personality and his way of seeing football, of seeing people, I felt myself,” says the 22-year-old. “We have a lot in common.”

Working with Sampaoli does present a player with its challenges, though. He is renowned for his tactical tinkering, using 14 different formations this season alone. For Guendouzi, that has generally meant operating in a more advanced midfield role. Against Nice, he wore the No 6 but played more like a right-sided No 8, occasionally dropping in at right wing-back to help with build-up. The deployment grants him a freedom that suits his game.

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It’s distinct from the deeper role he usually occupied at Arsenal, and in some ways reminiscent of Granit Xhaka’s recent redeployment by Arteta. Few Marseille fans doubt Guendouzi’s physical capacity to fill a box-to-box role, but there are some concerns over his technical quality — especially in the final third. “He doesn’t take enough risks going forward,” one tells The Athletic after the Nice game. “He’s technically poor, he’s not creative enough.”

“He irritates me,” says another. “His first touch isn’t great, his control of the ball is bad. He makes poor choices.”

And yet, none can argue with his foremost traits: his work rate and his character. “He is a warrior,” they admit. “He lets nothing go.” When Guendouzi makes mistakes on the pitch — if he misplaces a pass or miscontrols the ball — he seems to win back possession through sheer force of will.

There have been no signs of the disciplinary issues that plagued his time at Arsenal. Some credit that to Sampaoli’s man-management skills: he is substantially more experienced than Arteta, and perhaps more adaptable when it comes to dealing with different personalities.

But others sense that this is a more mature Guendouzi. He became a father last year and seems more settled.

Watching the game against Nice, the on-field histrionics have noticeably diminished from the Arsenal days. When tackled, he gets up and chases the ball rather than the referee. When a team-mate misplaces a pass, he goes to throw his arms up, then stops himself.

The personality is still there, though. Qarabag’s Ibrahima Wadji revealed that after he handled the ball into the net in a Europa Conference League knockout-phase game last month, Guendouzi told him: “If you are a Muslim, God will punish you if you don’t tell the truth!” Wadji promptly owned up, and the goal was disallowed.

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“Guendouzi is very honest, sometimes come across as harsh, but what he says is often a reality,” says another well-placed source. “He is rarely disrespectful.”

Arteta might disagree — the pair had a very public fallout during Arsenal’s training trip to Dubai in February 2020.

In the June, after Guendouzi allegedly taunted Brighton players about their earnings in a post-lockdown match, he was called in for disciplinary meetings with the club hierarchy — meetings that did not go well. Guendouzi’s advocates suggest he may have been the victim of a grander strategy: in parts of the squad, there was a feeling that Arteta was determined to break up the French dressing-room clique, who were close-knit and influential.

Despite all that, there is a sense of regret at Arsenal about Guendouzi’s impending departure.

Arteta’s “non-negotiables” have arguably laid the foundations for the club’s cultural revolution, but there have necessarily been casualties. Few at Arsenal doubt Guendouzi’s talent, and there is disappointment that things have not worked out.

The club initially sent him on loan to Hertha Berlin in Germany’s Bundesliga, before striking a deal with Marseille last summer. The criteria for a permanent transfer there were always likely to be met: one condition was that Marseille avoid relegation. The agreement is believed to be worth an initial €1 million loan fee, with a further €11 million due this year.

On reflection, there could also be some regret over that deal: Arsenal may have accepted a pandemic price to guarantee some influx of cash. In reality, on the open market and as a full France international, Guendouzi could well be worth at least twice that amount.

That ship, however, has sailed.

Guendouzi has found a home in Marseille and is likely to remain there.

The more intriguing question is what becomes of his Arsenal, Marseille and now France team-mate Saliba.

It has been a good week to be William Saliba.

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On Sunday, he helped overcome Nice to take Marseille above their local rivals into second place and on track for Champions League qualification.

The following day, he received his first call-up to Didier Deschamps’ senior France squad.

On Thursday, March 24, he turned 21.

Because his name has been familiar to Arsenal fans for some time now, that landmark occasion is a startling reminder of just how young he still is. The belief at his parent club is that Saliba could still be six years short of his peak as a player.

Despite his tender years, Marseille are already Saliba’s third French club. He played for Nice on loan for the second half of last season and came through the ranks at Saint-Etienne.

When it was decided he would spend the whole 2021-22 season out on loan, Arsenal explored the possibility of arranging a move to a Premier League club to enable Saliba to accumulate experience in English football. There is clear rationality to that thinking — but for a Frenchman, Marseille holds an appeal that goes beyond logic.

The club is widely supported, with a storied past. It is a club born out of an industrial port, a city that has long been home to a significant immigrant population. The passion that exists around the club is therefore infused with politics. In a league now dominated by the uber-rich metropolitans of Paris Saint-Germain, Marseille are the romantic choice.

For Saliba, a move to the Stade Velodrome — as opposed to, say, Newcastle United or Crystal Palace — would have been a relatively straightforward choice.

The loan has also served its purpose. Saliba has played plenty of football, starting 28 Ligue 1 games, and three more in the French Cup. He’s also started nine matches of European competition, which is more than any current member of the Arsenal squad can say.

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For the season, he’s accumulated 3,595 minutes — more than any other Marseille player. Guendouzi is second, with just 39 minutes fewer.

That underlines the trust Sampaoli has been prepared to place in these two young loanees.

“From day one, he told me that I was going to become one of the leaders of the team,” Saliba said earlier this season. “He brings me a lot of confidence. Even after bad matches.”

That knowledge that he would play every game has provided Saliba with a platform upon which to develop. “You progress faster when you have a coach who doesn’t take you out,” he said this week. “You make a mistake, the next game, you know you have to correct it. This is where you progress the fastest.”

It has not always been plain sailing. It was Arsene Wenger, gone from the Arsenal job just over a year when they signed the teenager in the summer of 2019, who coined the phrase, “You pay for the education of young players with points”, and there have been times this season when Marseille have had to accept that price. Saliba can be deeply impressive, but is prone to aberrations. “He is very good at some of the difficult things, occasionally not as good with the simple things,” as one contact puts it.

That much was in evidence on Sunday against Nice.

Saliba’s time operating in Sampaoli’s system has certainly been an education.

In the Nice match, as has often been the case this season, he lined up on the right of a back three. In that position, he spends a lot of time almost in the “full-back” channel. When Marseille lose possession, he tucks into a narrower position with defensive midfielder Valentin Rongier dropping in as a right-back. Intriguingly, there are some clear parallels with the role Ben White played for Brighton last season before his summer move to Arsenal.

His ability to play on the right of a three has been instrumental in his France call-up. Deschamps recently committed to that formation, and with the ill Benjamin Pavard absent for this week’s matches against Ivory Coast and South Africa, Saliba was next in line.

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It’s not a perfect fit.

Covering that wide portion of the pitch means he does occasionally look like a centre-half awkwardly filling in at right-back. The late foul for which he is booked is not his first moment of discomfort against Nice. In the first half, a late lunge at Melvin Bard leaves the overlapping full-back cut and complaining. When pressed close to the touchline, his distribution becomes less reliable.

There’s one critical moment in his own box, when Saliba appears to bring down striker Andy Delort. Somehow, Nice’s appeals are waved away. A close escape.

But there are other times when Saliba looks dominant.

Physically, his frame is so impressive. At one point he thunders into an aerial challenge with Amine Gouiri which leaves the Nice forward down and requiring treatment. Their skulls cracked together, meaning Gouiri returns to the field bloodied and bandaged. Twice in the space of 45 minutes, Saliba’s aggressive approach draws blood — and yet he walked away unharmed.

On the ball, he is composed, even elegant. He makes mistakes, but they don’t seem to disturb his sense of calm. If anything, he looks like a player for whom football has sometimes been too easy.

There have been obvious high points during this loan spell.

In October, he produced a last-ditch tackle on Kylian Mbappe, a close family friend from their time growing up in the Bondy district of Paris, which predictably became a social media sensation.

Arsenal’s technical director Edu and loan manager Ben Knapper were both in attendance that night. Edu waited until after the game to speak to Saliba, and congratulated him on his performance.

There have been clear lows too, perhaps most obviously a ragged performance in last month’s 4-1 defeat to Nice in the French Cup.

In the aftermath of that game, Saliba was frank in assessing his form. “I’m a young player but that’s no excuse,” he told French media outlet RMC. “Since the beginning of February, I’ve been very average.” It’s typical of a player who analyses his own game in detail, and expects the best. In someone so young, however, it is unusual.

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“We must not hide,” he went on. “I know I have to work, I’m a young player, but that’s no excuse. I’ll give everything to get back to my good level.” For a young defender, setbacks are inevitable — it’s the recovery that matters most. Within a matter of weeks, he had done enough to earn a call-up to the full France squad.

The testimony of Sylvain Ripoll, the France Under-21 manager, was key in securing Saliba’s place with the seniors. Saliba has become a leadership figure at the “Espoirs” level, and that has factored into his promotion. He has already undergone his initiation with the full team, performing his version of a track by French rapper Booba.

“We have been following him for a while,” says Deschamps. “What he is doing with OM (Marseille), in a role he knows well and in a system that is not identical, but similar to the one we use, is interesting.

“William is a good defender in the duel. He is quick, has a good heading game and exudes a lot of serenity and composure.”

A place in the World Cup squad this winter may still be a stretch for Saliba, but at least he has his chance.

The question now is what the future holds.

When Saliba joined Arsenal almost three years ago, he signed a four-year contract which also granted the club an option for an additional year. Assuming that option is exercised — and Arsenal have until the end of December to trigger it — the deal will take him to 2024. Ordinarily, a club would look to extend a player two years from his contract’s expiration, but all parties are aware Saliba is unlikely to commit until his future is determined.

For Arsenal, bringing Saliba back would appear to be a sensible move. He would return a more experienced, accomplished defender. They look likely to have some form of European football to play next season, and there is a need for more depth and quality in the squad.

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“If Saliba comes to the UK and plays now, he will be a different Saliba to the one who arrived,” says someone who has watched him at close hand in Marseille. “He has developed very well.”

But does he want to go back? And furthermore, do Arsenal really want him?

There has not been a great deal of contact between club and player this season — for the most part, they have left him to his own devices. When Saliba first joined Arsenal, he took an unusually active role in the move for a teenager, and developed good relationships with executives Huss Fahmy and Raul Sanllehi. Those two have both since left the club, and Saliba is not close to any members of the current hierarchy.

Arsenal have a loans manager, Knapper, who monitors and manages the players stationed elsewhere. Saliba is no exception, but there has been little contact with Arsenal’s technical leaders since that PSG game five months ago. If Arteta and Edu have a plan for him next season, it has not been communicated to him yet.

Some will query why Saliba should be treated differently from any other player out on loan. The answers, perhaps, come in the form of the price tag, the potential, the impending international recognition. It’s difficult to escape the suspicion that if Saliba is an important part of Arteta’s future plans, he would probably know about it.

Certainly, there have been issues between the defender and Arsenal’s current manager.

Saliba arrived at Arsenal in the summer of 2020, hoping for some respite. He had endured an up-and-down season on loan back at Saint-Etienne, suffering two significant injuries. That was nothing, however, compared to the hardship he faced away from the field. Two months before he was due to start life at Arsenal that pre-season, his mother died. Saliba was, of course, very close to her, and it was a terrible blow.

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After the 2019-20 French season was curtailed in the March due to the pandemic, Saliba reported to London Colney hoping to be integrated into the Arsenal squad. Instead, Arteta quickly decided he would not consider him for selection in 2020-21. Reports from London Colney suggested a rusty Saliba appeared some way short of the expected level.

Saliba hoped for the consolation of representing Saint-Etienne in the delayed French cup final in the July, but the two clubs could not come to an agreement. Saliba was left extremely disappointed — and that frustration was compounded by the fact no loan was organised before the closure of the summer transfer window.

Reports have since blamed an administrative error or lack of resources for the apparent collapse of a deal on deadline day, but the reality is that, for a deal to be comfortably completed, a decision on Saliba’s immediate future needed to be made weeks in advance. But Arsenal stalled, and time ran out.

Saliba is very ambitious — he thinks about his career in terms of a 15-year plan. Team-mates regularly joke about the huge plates of food he devours, but that appetite for food is matched only by a voracious appetite for success. He is determined to go to the top. Every month has significance, every game has value. Ultimately, Saliba had to wait until last season’s January window to join Nice on loan. Those months where he played eight times for Arsenal Under-23s in Premier League 2 and the EFL Trophy felt like time wasted. He was angry, and he was hurt.

Some of that has been processed now. It’s a sign of his maturity that today he sees that as a wake-up call.

Speaking to Eurosport in December, he said: “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, 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.

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“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 reality.”

For his part, Arteta has defended the decision to send Saliba somewhere he would play regularly. “I know that sometimes it’s difficult to explain or understand, after the money that the club has spent trying to bring him in, to send him on loan,” the Arsenal manager said earlier this season.

“But a lot of things have happened to him. He’s a long-term player for us and we need to protect him as well. And giving him three or four games (of first-team football with Arsenal) is not enough.”

So what now?

Publicly, Saliba is keeping his cards close to the chest.

He says the right things when it comes to both Arsenal and Marseille — and appears open to staying on in Provence.  The French have made no secret of their admiration for Saliba, nor he of his affection for the club. “I never hid that I felt good here,” he told the media this week. “I don’t know my future, there are two months left. The most important thing is to qualify for the Champions League and go as far as possible in the Conference League (Marseille face Greece’s PAOK Salonika in the quarter-finals next month).

“I think there will be discussions afterwards, at the end of May/beginning of June, with Arsenal and Marseille. But it is sure that continuing here would not be a bad idea. On the contrary, I know the city, my team-mates, my coach. But it’s not just up to me.”

Some in France question whether Marseille would have the financial muscle to pull off a permanent signing, especially with owner Frank McCourt looking to rein in spending.

Saliba would not come cheap: Arsenal would presumably want to recoup the €30 million they paid, although a precise valuation remains uncertain — the possibility of Saliba’s permanent departure has yet to be formally discussed between player and club. Marseille would have to secure Champions League qualification to stand a chance of paying such a fee, and even then it would be very difficult. Saliba’s Arsenal wage already places him among the highest earners at the French club, and he would justifiably expect an uplift if he were to join them permanently.

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Marseille, however, are unlikely to be his only option. The Athletic understands that if Saliba were to decide to move on permanently this summer, he would have other suitors in France, Spain and England.

Saliba remains open to returning to Arsenal, too. He recognises they are a big club and a big opportunity, and it would sting to leave without ever making his mark in a red and white shirt.

There is also acknowledgement, however, of the difficulties a return presents.

White and Gabriel are established as the first-choice defensive pairing — White has even taken the No 4 shirt once earmarked for Saliba. He, unlike them, is not an Arteta signing. As great as Arsenal’s initial investment in Saliba was, their £50 million investment in White was greater. And after a successful debut season, the 24-year-old England international’s standing will only increase.

There would be no guarantee of game-time next season for the Frenchman should he return to the mothership — and with the prospect of a World Cup place in November and December having now been dangled tantalisingly in front of him, that may be an even greater issue.

Arsenal’s current third-choice centre-half, Rob Holding, has started just four of the 28 league games so far in 2021-22. For a player with designs on competing in this year’s World Cup, such a scenario would be entirely unacceptable. Turning their current fourth place into European qualification would mean more fixtures to go round, but would they be the kind of showcase games to persuade Deschamps to include him?

Saliba takes nothing for granted regarding his involvement with France — their wealth of defensive options means him winning a place on the plane to Qatar is still a long shot — but now that the prospect feels tangible, it is a goal he has to strive for.

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There are those at London Colney who suggest the hype around Saliba outweighs the talent; others who feel he has done more than enough to earn a chance to wear the Arsenal shirt. Whether he gets that opportunity may ultimately come down to the manager. How much does he want this player? What guarantees is he prepared to offer?

“My feeling is that Arteta for whatever reason isn’t sold on him,” France-based football writer Matt Spiro suggests. “That might change, given the season Saliba is having. I still believe he would want to play for Arsenal — the question is whether he will get the chance under this coach.”

If Saliba were in regular contact with senior figures at his parent club, who were assuring him of his place in their plans, perhaps the situation would be different. Instead, he does not know where he stands.

Until recently, the prospect of returning to Arsenal without guarantees and fighting for a first-team place was not especially daunting. With a potential 2022 World Cup place on the horizon, however, it may be too great a risk.

This call-up to Deschamps’ senior France squad is undoubtedly great news for Saliba.

It may not be good news for those fans still holding out hope of seeing him at Arsenal.

(Main graphic — Photos: Getty Images/Design: Tom Slator)

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