£100m for a player whom we purchased for £27m wouldn’t just net us £73m (itself almost surpassing the £78m Man U paid for Maguire); it would allow us to but that striker we’ve long since coveted. Between now and the summer window, surely we could see enough development from Calafiori, Timber, White, and Tomiyasu that we wouldn’t miss Saliba all that much…right? Even if none of them emerges as a solid replacement for Saliba, we’d still have all of that cash to spend. I’m sure our scouting team has already lined up potential CBs who we could get for a fraction of what we’d sell Saliba for, and we’d still have upwards of £75m added to our war chest for that striker.
Then again, whoever replaces Saliba would have some mighty big shoes to fill, and not just because Saliba stands 1.92m. What size should would that be, do you think? 46? 48? They’d be boats. It’s not just that, though. Saliba is, as I started out by saying, among the best CBs around. Whether someone in the squad steps up or whether we sign someone, there’s going to be a drop-off. We’re already seen how fine the margins are when conceding 0.84 goals per game has us stuck in second place. Even a slight uptick to, say 0.90 goals per game would sink our aspirations if not subject us to once again fighting tooth and nail to stay in the top four.
Beyond those considerations, though, are larger ones. What message does it send to the rest of our young, just-coming-into-their-prime players to see Saliba flit off to a bigger club for a fat pay-rise and guaranteed silverware? We’ve seen this script before, most famously involving Fabregas and Nasri and van Persie. Back then, of course, we were little more than a selling club with no ambition (don’t get me started on Fabregas’s role in that reputation). Now, however, we are one of the best clubs in the Prem and are among the favourites to get to the Champions League final with only Liverpool and Barcelona rated ahead of us (although Real might leapfrog us should they get past Man City).
Given, then, that Real Madrid are going to try to prise Saliba away with that pay-rise and easy path to silverware, it’s essential that we offer Saliba a pay-rise of our own. He’s reportedly on £190k/wk. Éder Militão, Real’s 27 year old CB, earns something like £235k/wk, and this makes him one of the club’s highest earners. I’d have to think that we can offer Saliba enough to convince him to stay. The other part of the equation—the silverware—might be harder to offer. Some of that comes down to Saliba and his outlook. Does he seem himself as just another fancy bauble to be added to a dragon’s hoard, or does he want to stand out as a leader and potential legend? Let’s hope it’s the latter.
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