Olympique Marseille defender William Saliba admits he felt like a "nobody" at parent club Arsenal last season.
Saliba has been on the books at Arsenal for three years, but only spent six months with the Londoners last term where he failed to make a first team appearance.
He recalled to Eurosport: "There are hard times. I hadn't played a game for six months. You have to fight in a career. We must take that as a lesson to go further. It gave me a little slap to say: 'You are nobody!'
"You can be bought for €30m, arrive in a club and we put you aside. I took this experience by being positive. I feed on it. I know what it's like not to play for six months. Today, every game, I want to play it. It puts the ideas back in place.
"Before arriving at Arsenal, I said to myself: 'Who am I going to play in a match?' And there, you are not even in the group in the league. It was a good slap, it feels good. It puts you back on the ground. Football is going fast."
Of his form this season, Saliba added: "Not a message directly to them. But as I don't play for six months, that I had a hard time, I wanted to show that I had the capacity to play at this club. I do it for myself first. It's not revenge, but when you don't play for six months, you have fangs."
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