Saka and Smith Rowe are from the country. They’ve been with the club since they were 10. They speak the language. They’re familiar with the culture, the league, their team mates. They had even broken through under Emery. Saliba turned up, was given time with the under 23’s and was getting sent off and pulling shit that Mustafi would’ve been proud of. Why do you seem to think every single players situation is the exact same? They’re not robots.
I don’t particularly agree with arsenal fans being especially forgiving of younger players. Obviously to an extent that’s true of all fans. But we had a clearly talented youngish CB turn up who had been selected for his country, won poty at his last club, had been trusted by much more experienced managers than ours and we had a bunch of fans calling him Ben Shite all season and saying he was embarrassingly out of his depth when he turned up. That shit was cringeworthy at the time and it looks really fucken stupid now too.
I’d never say him staying wasn’t an option. I’m sure going down that route would’ve had benefits too and there’s obviously a chance we could be in an even better position than we find ourselves in now. But they went the other way and it seems to have worked out pretty well, hasn’t it? The hysteria surrounding those decisions obviously looks pretty short sighted and immature now, but i thought that was the case at the time, so i would say that, wouldn’t i?
