NO WILLIAM SALIBA IS NOT WORLD CLASS... YET!

Don't shoot me, people. Please don't shoot me. Just hear me out. Don't get your pitchforks ready. Just hear me out, hear me out, hear me out, hear me out. Seleba, William Seleba, is not world-class. Just hear me out. Like I said, calm down. I know a lot of you are foaming at the mouths. I don't think he's world-class yet. A lot of you are thinking, damn, DG, what are you doing? It is looking good. He is on the right path. He is a quality player. As I said, he's on the right path. He's on the right road. He's at the right club, under the right manager, in the right system, developing with fellow players that are also young and of similar age groups or if not necessarily age groups in terms of where they are in their footballing careers. He's doing everything right. But it's a long road. It's a rocky road to become world-class, in my humble opinion. We're all allowed an opinion, right? Football is a funny game of opinions. As I always say on my YouTube channel, I'm not telling you what to think. I'm just telling you to think. If you think he's world-class already, what can I tell you? I welcome diversity. Smash the like button. Comment and let me know on that front. As I said, he's on the right road. It is a rocky path filled with bumps and bruises. One thing that annoys me in the current game, if you have a young player in Saliba's age, 22 years of age and everything going for him, you don't just become world-class overnight. There's bumps and bruises. Think about if you're learning to drive a car. You're going to stall. You're going to fail to signal. You're going to make errors. And that's the scope that Saliba is now at. He learns from his errors. He's a dramatically better player than a year ago. As I said, he's improving every day, every game. He's a leader. There's so much to like about Saliba that I don't think I'll be able to cram within this video. His stock is rising. His performances are rising. His growth in the Arsenal team and in the importance, if it wasn't already, is rising. He's growing for club and hopefully country and in the wider footballing community. Money well spent. We signed him for £27-28 million. In my opinion, if he's not already, he'll be a £100 million player, in my opinion. He's played against the toughest and biggest and baddest in the league. Latest victim being Haaland. Rumours say there's still a search party for Haaland, really and truly. But is he, at this moment, up there with a Varane of Real Madrid? Is he up there with a Cannavaro of Real Madrid? Then every other club, Ballon d'Or winner, not that that's a thing. Is he up there with a prime Real Ferdinand? You tell me. I'm asking you lot. Them and they are racist that you're seeing on the screen, but is he up there with John Terry? I don't know. I'm asking. Is he up there with a prime Saul Campbell? I don't know. I'm asking. Is he up there with a Puyo at this moment in time? You know, this current Saliba, can he hang with these players in the same realm if they were still playing at their peak powers? Is he up there with a company? You know, is he up there with a Tony Adams at this moment in time? As I said, I don't tell you what to think, just think. Is he up there with a prime Van Dijk, even? Someone he speaks about learning from and as a guide point. Is he up there with a Sergio Ramos, for example? So, yeah, people, allow me to let your creative juices flow again. By now, I assume those of you that have made it to this part of the video, you're allowing me to just get my thoughts. As I said, I welcome yours. I hope your brains are now ticking. I hope you're now starting to do your calculations. You know, people judge world class on different metrics. For me, it's mainly longevity in which that goes against Saliba currently at this moment in time. Hopefully, there's a light bulb going off in your head to just hear me out in terms of my alternative thinking. As I said, if you don't think he's world class, if you think he's world class, if you think he's the best thing since sliced bread, what am I to tell you? The man's a quality player. You can see the win percentage he has at Arsenal. You can see how he dealt with Haaland and how he's been dealing with the business since he's been in the Arsenal shirt. We all know how it ended for Arsenal last season. I don't just think you can look at Rob Holden's injury and Saliba's absence, but there's a reason our title aspirations derailed really. Again, he's on the right trajectory. He's a quality player. I'm happy to have him at Arsenal and I'm happy with how Arteta has gone about developing him, people. He's central to our playing out from the back. You can see that on screen with the touches and the passes and all of those sort of things. A bit like Van Dijk. I remember Liverpool fans going crazy. He hasn't been dribbled past in the Premier League. He has the best win percentage of any player in Arsenal's team in the Premier League currently, people. Against City, he won 100% of his duels and had a 97-pass completion rate. He firmly is a Rolls-Royce. He's a very fantastic player. He's got a lot going for him. He's man-mounting. He's a physical player. He's got it all. As you can see, I think off the ball, there's minor tweaks. There's minor margins he can improve. As shown against United, where him and Benjamin White kind of made a mess of it after Havertz lost the ball, they allowed Rashford onto his stronger foot. And I think for the next step, Saliba's got to learn to take authority in these sort of moments, if I'm honest. As I said, the gap between being a good player and a great player, there is a lot, but it's also about fine margins. And that's where Saliba currently is. Against Spurs, he's not alone. The goal that Maddison set up, the first one, he was unaware of Son. And as you can see on screen, as I said, he improves every day, every game, every minute. He's even a dramatically better player, in my opinion, than he was last season, which he was fantastic at. We have to allow this young player to ultimately live or die by the high standards he set, but also make mistakes. As he will do, he's done it before, he'll do it again. There's not a single player in world football, even the players I used as reference, that never made mistakes. Anyone that makes mistakes has not got the courage to try anything. Mistakes happen, but the best players you can count on one hand throughout the course of a season when they do such. Again, I'm not really answering for the Brentford free kick that he gave away. Sure, you could do better, as you can see with the video. I wouldn't hold that one necessarily against him, but I found this video on YouTube. I thought it was great. Shout out to whoever created this. I like him a lot. I also think he needs to learn to thrive on the left-hand side as well of a centre-back pairing, because he seems to play there for France. How good would he be without Gabriel, for example, in this Arsenal system? Because surely to be a world-class player, you've got to thrive for club and country, regardless of the system and the formation. As I said, he's a quality player, he's a top player. He's firmly one of the best young players in general in world football. He's one of the best young centre-backs in world football. He's one of the best players in world football in his age group. He's one of the best centre-backs already, in my opinion, in the Premier League. I don't think he's the best yet, because I still think Van Dijk is there. I really rate Ruben Diaz. Other than that, I think it's debatable. So arguably, you know, he is already in the top three, top five centre-back category. And for me, honestly, I think, you know, one day he'll play for Real Madrid, I hope, or one of them kind of clubs there that selected a few elite clubs. I hope him and the numerous players that we've got at Arsenal and the players that are already in their peak and, you know, the Sakas, the Martinellis, the Salibas, the Odegaards, et cetera, hopefully we can win some things before they happen. Arsenal haven't sold a player for 100 million and we have a number of players, in my opinion, that should be able to. I really rate him, you know, his physicality, his recovery pace, his reading of the game, his intensity, his calmness, a healthy calmness on the ball, his timing of his slide tackles. I actually think a weakness in his game is heading, but that's improved. You know, again, a big part of being a defender is doing the less glamorous stuff. Of course, if he makes a fantastic last-ditch tackle, that's what gets highlighted. But what should be highlighted is if he's read something before it's happened and mopped it up, and that's not in match of the day highlights, for example. He's a colossus. He's got everything going for him. He's very calm on the ball, firmly the modern-day centre-half. I like his temperament. He doesn't get overruled in big games. In fact, he relishes big games. You can see that in his days at France, playing for a club like Marseille and also St Etienne as well. The man's lovely. He's a lovely footballer and I'm keen to see him grow in an Arsenal shirt, if I'm completely honest with you. You know, even games where we played against top-heavy hitters in the Premier League, he's left the games with his reputation intact or enhanced really and truly. And it does hit different when you hear the comments about he grew up as an Arsenal fan and all of this sort of stuff, of course, is special. Again, I have to give credit to Mikel Arteta for how he's developed him, the little things he's done in training, even ignoring him in training, sending him out on loan. I have to give credit to Edu as well for getting this man and all the others under contract, you know, and you would have by now seen a lot of comments on screen by Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger, Saliba himself. Again, they're designed at helping you thought-provoke. You know, we've got one of the best defences in the Premier League and that's down to everyone, but also him. So hopefully people, you know, you may not agree with me. I think he's a top player. I think he's on the right path to becoming world-class, but hopefully I've now got the thoughts going off in your head, really. You know, it's testament to Saliba that despite not really having the most of appearances in football, that we're saying this really. Has he made 100 appearances for Arsenal? Has he made close to 100 caps for France? Not that I'm holding it against him. He's on the right path. Like I said, people, he's on the correct terms in what he needs to do. Please don't misunderstand that, people. That's all from me. So please let me know your thoughts. Smash the like button, comment, subscribe, all of that good stuff. One love, folks.