The amount of changes that Mikel Arteta has introduced since his appointment as manager at Arsenal has been incredible, and we are expecting to see a further exodus of players that are surplus to requirements in the next month or so. But one stalwart is the defencer Rob Holding who has always been in the squad available to replace any injured or suspended defenders at a moments notice.
AS Holding himself told the Athletic: ‘I’ve seen centre-halves come and go. I’m still here, I must be doing something right’
But now Holding has admitted that he very nearly left the Emirates when Steve Bruce was trying to take him on loan to Newcastle in 2020, but Arteta persuaded the ex-Bolton star to stay and fight for more game time. Holding said: “It was always going to be a loan. I was just back from my ACL injury and thought I needed a full season of playing.
“But after the Community Shield against Liverpool, the boss said to me, ‘You’re going to play here, I don’t know why you’re planning on going on loan’.
“And I said, ‘If I’m going to play here then yeah, I’m happy, no problem’. And I ended up playing 35-odd Premier League games that year.”
It’s quite amazing that Holding has been here for 7 years but is still only 26. He has Made 84 appearances all in all, and may make it to 100 this season, who knows? And who is betting against him still being here for the next few years, despite the arrival of Saliba?
