Manchester United's Leny Yoro transfer: What William Saliba's path at Arsenal shows about developing defenders

The template for Manchester United's newest signing was relatively obvious the moment he signed. He's a highly regarded, extremely young, French center back purchased at great expense. If Leny Yoro is the player his $76.2 million transfer fee suggests, then he might be his new side's William Saliba.

Such a trajectory, ambitious though it may seem, is not unimaginable where Yoro is concerned. At 18, he was one of the best center backs in Ligue 1 last season. Tall, strong and mobile, Yoro passes the ball with a composure belying his years. The youngster did not compete in many duels for a player in his position, but he won a lot of them. Not for nothing did Lille academy director Jean-Michel Vandamme compare him with Raphael Varane. There is a reason why his former manager Paulo Fonseca described Yoro as a player who "will be one of the best central defenders in France and probably all of Europe." That was an assessment seemingly shared by Real Madrid, who would have swooped for him next summer if United hadn't this, and Paris Saint-Germain.

Saliba's is a high bar to reach, but anything even approximating Arsenal's titan at the back and United will have an extremely impressive prospect on their hands. At just 23 years of age, Saliba is either the very best central defender in the world or not far off it. Blessed with every attribute a player in his position needs, from metronomic passing to a reading of the game that means he never fully needs to turn on his explosive afterburners, the France international is arguably the most important player at a Champions League contender. As Mikel Arteta can attest, with Saliba Arsenal can push Manchester City all the way in a title race. Without him they struggle to keep pace.

Having snared such a transformative player for the low price of $35 million in 2019 ought to go down as Arsenal's greatest signing in a generation, perhaps even since Thierry Henry rocked their world, if you're inclined to be spicy in your takes. What is certain is that Saliba is the crowning achievement to emerge from the court politics of the Raul Sanllehi era, a period where Arsenal transfers had many different fathers, few of whom would put their neck on the line as the man who made the final call.

Saliba's signing might have had many progenitors but it was remarkably close to the sort of deal that would have the Arsenal hierarchy insisting "no, that was the other guy's". The Gunners signed a player who would go on to be worth four, five times what they paid for him. And they nearly mucked it all up.

Injuries and a global pandemic didn't help Saliba's development. Nor did muddled management that left him unable to play competitive football for the first half of the 2020-21 season, loan opportunities fumbled at the last, mixed reports on his training ground form abounding, per CBS SPorts sources. There were no guarantees that his excellence on loan at Marseille in 2021-22 was going to translate into a place in Arteta's side, particularly when the manager seemed so spiky whenever press conferences turned to his absent center back.

It was certainly clear at the back end of that campaign that Saliba was at least considering a permanent switch to Ligue 1. Were it not for a sense of unfinished business that he felt, the best young center back in the sport might have departed Arsenal without playing a senior game. The perfect development trajectory might have emerged from Saliba but a tough critic might contend it was in spite of Arsenal.

All of which is to reflect on just how challenging it is to nail the development of even the most heralded young prospects. That is what Manchester United have on their hands with Yoro. Can they be trusted to turn potential into reality?

Few English clubs have quite as verdant a path to the first team for youngsters as Manchester United. Both their actions and words this summer speak to a club finally prepared to take the long road to the top, building a contender organically rather than laboring under the delusion that they are only ever one transformative veteran away from the promised land. Yoro fits the timescale they should be following.

Then again, for all United's commitment to youth, their journey to the fringes of the top four is scattered with the prospects who never were. Adnan Januzaj, Jadon Sancho, arguably even Marcus Rashford: the consistent truth of youngsters at Old Trafford is they never seem quite as good as they promised to be when they broke through. That needs changing.

To do so with Yoro requires a carefully constructed pathway and a commitment to minutes. Starting him in the friendly win over Rangers is a good jumping off point, but will he slip behind Lisandro Martinez and the second new signing who is expected to come in at center back this summer, possibly Matthijs de Ligt or Jarrad Branthwaite? When the pressure is on Erik ten Hag – as it inevitably will be for a young side that proved last season it is as capable of bad strekas as good ones – will he feel compelled to start Yoro over the more experienced Victor Lindelof and Harry Maguire?

Even if the 18-year-old is as good as Ligue 1 would suggest he is, he will make mistakes. As Arsene Wenger attests, you "pay for the education of young players with points." It is a brave coach who does so when his side are battling for a top-four berth, probably not the sort who spent the start of this summer seeing his superiors scout around for anyone better suited to his job.

At a time when finances are tight, much as they were at the Emirates Stadium when Saliba was signed and David Luiz claimed off the Stamford Bridge scrapheap to replace Laurent Koscielny, Yoro needs to be a success and a significant one at that. When the Gunners paid $35 million for their French youngster and put him on around $50,000 a week in salary there was at least a sense that a fair wedge of that money could be made back if they sold him back to Ligue 1. United spent more than twice that and are said to be paying him nearly three times the wages. The losses would be altogether harder to cut. Even for a revenue generating machine like United, the expenditure on Yoro means this is a deal that needs to work.

For a club that has so effectively bungled the development of past prospects that is an almighty risk to take before we even get into what might happen to the player. The wrong loans, an unfortunately timed injury, a developmental curve that, through no one's fault, does not quite go the way anyone is expecting, there are countless ways the development of even the best prospects can go wrong. That is why players like Saliba are so valuable, many of the best youngsters in the game do little wrong and still can't hit those heights. Still, if United get things as right as Arsenal somehow managed to, they will have quite a serene decade in defense ahead of them.