Saliba the Sincere: "I used to be too lazy to train"

Being talented is fine. Having an adequate physique is excellent. But none of it would do you much good if you're not prepared to treat every training session as a battle for survival and stop treating football as just a bit of fun.

Arsenal's French defender William Saliba was guilty of that cardinal sin while he was still playing in attack for his local club Bondy in Parisian suburbs.

"I wanted to score in every game, but I wouldn't say I was a selfish player. Some strikers are selfish, but I looked for my teammates, too. I have to be honest, though and say I was a lazy player. Yes, I was lazy, and I would sulk quite a lot. My manager would always tell me off for sulking, for being lazy in training."

Saliba's attitude made his coaches chastise him for acting like a spoiled brat in training.

"This is maybe why I wasn't captain! As I said, I was young in my head, but then I grew up. My coaches helped me a lot at that age. I realised how you had to be on the pitch, and I changed."

But the 22-year-old French international was wise enough to realise he needed to change. It wasn't about forgetting how to have fun - but rather to pick the right time for it.

"You learn about everyone, about every culture. You get to learn a lot about new cultures, and I like it when people also come to me and ask about France. Maybe they are going on holiday to Paris, or the south of France and they speak to me about it. We have an excellent atmosphere here at Arsenal. Every day we laugh and joke. We like being round each other, but when we are on the pitch we go hard, and we are serious. It's important to have both – you cannot do one without the other."

William explains that feelings of unity and togetherness is crucial among the Gunners, and the credit for that goes to boss Mikel Arteta and his coaching team.

"We do a lot of things to be closer and closer and to learn about each other. The coaches will speak to us about how important it is to be a unit, and to be together, not just with the fans, but as a team as well. An example is when we were on tour in America, we always mixed the tables for every meal. We don't choose the table where we sit at lunch or dinner."