Hang on, am I the only one who gets the impression that Arteta is trying to protect Saliba and that this has nothing to do with ability? There's a really toxic narrative that's forming saying that he's a dud or that Arteta doesn't trust him when all we actually know about him does not suggest that.
He was good enough for St. Etiene to want to bring him back for the cup final and for this season. At the same time, his mum has recently died (so he's now parent-less), living in a foreign country and his manager has indicated he wants to protect him from the hype. Given we've got people like Mertesacker in our youth set-up who's put major emphasis on the pastoral support players have at a young age, is it not more likely that we don't want to throw him into a pressure cooker when he needs a chance to grieve? It would make sense as to why we favoured a loan move back to France (to be close to family) rather than chucking him into the Championship.
The only fuck-up here, isn't that we didn't sort out his loan back to France in the summer but I see nothing to suggest he's not trusted by his manager or that he's a dud so can we give that a rest?
