Charles Watts has questioned Marseille’s ability to find the funds needed to convince Arsenal to sell William Saliba, as much as they wish to re-sign him.
The 21 year-old enjoyed a thoroughly impressive season on loan with the Olympiens, helping them to secure a place in the Champions League with a second-placed finish in Ligue 1, picking up the Young Player of the Year award in the process.
While they are claimed to be keen on bringing him back from north London ahead of the new season, Arsenal appear to have made their intention to include him in their first-team squad for the upcoming campaign clear, yet they do not seem ready to give up on his return just yet.
Watts insists that it would take an offer outside of Marseille’s budget to strike a deal with the Gunners however.
“It’d be it’d be big money, he’s still got two years left has contract, he stated on his YouTube channel. “He’s a fully fledged international now, he is Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year.
“You’re talking big, big money. And I just can’t see Marseille being able to afford that and doing what else they want to do in the summer transfer window.
“So they can they can continue to test the water all they want, but I’d be very, very surprised if we see any sort of thing happened with this Marseille stuff certainly.
“Unless he comes in doesn’t get any sort of chance in preseason, and it looks very clear that [Mikel] Arteta still doesn’t fancy him.”
It does seem crazy to consider his sale at this point, unless he fails to convince Mikel Arteta in pre-season that he is ready for his team of course. At 21 year-old he could well be ready, if his last 12 months are anything to come by, but the manager has his own thinking and it could well be that he doesn’t see an important role for him.
I don’t see why we should consider a sale this summer, not without giving him a fair shot at breaking into the first-team, but if a club is willing to come in with an offer of £50 Million or more than it could prove tempting.
Patrick
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If there’s any truth to these rumours which I don’t believe there is. Firstly Marseille currently have a transfer ban because of a who ha over Pape Gueye with Watford. I heard they’ve apparently offered 24m which is ridiculous considering he is now a full france international and was one of league 1’s best defenders last year. If he were to go which i dont think he has any intention, it shouldn’t be for anything less than 45m.
No they haven’t its been lifted.
If £50m is offered by any club then take it. In 12 months time we will either have a great player who wants a small fortune to stay or a dud who we can’t get rid of. It’s a business at the end of the day
No, if it doesn’t work out in a year we’ll still be able to sell easily, just we won’t be able to get much money due to the length of his contract. The reputation he’s built at marseille will hold for a year at least, given his age, so someone would always be interested
I Love this guy to be with us
Think 50m would be very reasonable although I would take a swing at some sorta part ex for de ligt maybe they be in mood to listen to saliba +20m? I think they would certainly have to consider it. Especially given his demand to move was not on anyone’s card. Gotta question who has finance available to buy him?
I dont think Marseille will find the money but that is not the end of the saga. Saliba wants to get in the France squad for the world cup. He has managed that playing for Marseille. If he feels he isn’t getting a fair crack of the whip, he will have concerns.
even if we received a 50M offer, which likely won’t happen anyways, wouldn’t it have made vastly more sense if we had embedded him during “year 1” of the “process”, then allocated the 50M we paid for his functionally replacement, White, towards more pressing needs…that way we could have used last season, aka “year 1”, to get both Saliba and the other player we used White’s money on, acclimated…I just don’t see a way out of this scenario that isn’t a bad look for a professional footballing organization who’s constantly trying to convince anyone who will listen that we do things the “right way” now
I agree. Early in Arteta’s managerial tenure he had a free pass and was reasonably not being held to previous standards.
That would have been ideal to start embedding Saliba in the squad. Was he worse than Mustafi or Mari at the time?
He had good players around him (Gabriel, Tierney, Leno, Partey) to help, and a good time to play through his learning curve.
We finished 8th out of European football, would 9th or 10th matter much if Saliba got that year as experience and improved like in Marseille?
Perhaps could have saved the 50 million on White? I believe that was a missed opportunity for the player and financially for the club.
Clearly a very talented young player Arteta could have developed and molded into the type of CB he wanted. Saliba has many tools, just needed help to sharpen them, not build from scratch.
Apparently contract talks with Saliba are progressing well according to Chris Wheatley but I take that with a pinch of salt.
I hope so, but that might have more to do with maintaining leverage from a selling capacity than locking him down for the purposes of keeping him here long-term…I just think things could have been handled much differently, even if only from an optics standpoint, as it sends the wrong message to other potential signings, especially considering the fact that our team building model appears to rely heavily on enticing younger prospects to the Emirates
No need to sell him now. Time to integrate him let’s see what he can offer on the pitch which am positive about. He falls into the categories of players that we want. Why sell ?
Get Martinez, integrate him. The squad is good to go.
I think they should not sell him because is a player for tomorrow and I see the young man want to stay.
No, new deal for the kid.
The only thing I want is after all these new signings this week are the contract extensions and payrise’s of Saliba, Saka, Martinelli & Partey.
If we get a silly offer I still wouldn’t take it. We need William for squad depth and he’s a tall, strong, physical & quick for his size. Ligue1 YPOTS for a reason & why we payed so much 3years ago to get him in as a teenager. He goes nowhere
Considering the fact that as yet, SALIBA has not played a single minute in Europes toughest league , the Prem, all speculation is, as so often on JA, far too PREMATURE.
Sober minded Goonrs will wait to see what he can do in our shirt. That he willplay for us this season , contrary to silly comments, is 100% certain.
But how much and how often remains to be seen. Like any other of our players he will need to earn his place.
My hope is that he will do so but as I have not seen him play at all in the Prem, BECAUSE AS YET , HE HAS NOT DONE SO,I will bide my time and see what happens, instead of making wild assumptions as to his longer term future
His very short term future is certain though, as he is our player and plainly will not be sold this summer. CONTEXT!
Unless some ridiculous offer table which only Man United would fancy.
Essentially, only an EPL rival could afford him which we wouldn’t sell to, or a team like Madrid/Bayern/PSG, who aren’t going to go for him. He’s not going anywhere and isn’t there talks of a contract extension too?