Reports emerging from France claim that William Saliba will not be returning to his former club to play out the Coupe de France final.
Arsenal agreed a deal with St Etienne to sign the 19 year-old defender last summer, whilst a one-year loan was included in the terms that saw him play this season with his former club.
That deal came to an end in June, and Saliba has joined up with our squad in preparation for the new season, but with the final of the Coupe de France having been put back to July 24, the clubs had entered into talks to try and extend that loan.
There was believed to have been issues over the training regime that Arsenal wanted to include in the new short-term loan following the youngsters injuries this term, although it personally sounded like the disagreement was more financial.
A clause would have been triggered had the defender played once more for St Etienne this season, and it seemed as though this fee was wanted to be scrapped by Arsenal, as they wouldn’t agree to pay the £2 Million fee.
The deadline is now believed to have passed, with no deal in place to allow the centre-back to try and earn his first trophy as a senior player.
#ASSE Claude #Puel: "William #Saliba sera définitivement absent pour la #CDF. Il faut acter ce fait".@ASSEofficiel pic.twitter.com/Ctga4rQ0kG
— Le Progrès – ASSE (@leprogres_asse) July 16, 2020
The player was believed to be keen to participate in the final match-up, although his side will be going into the tie as under-dogs, with Paris Saint-Germain standing in their way of the trophy.
Was his fitness the issue over the deal? Should we have done more to allow Saliba to have featured in the final?
Patrick
Not for £2m
Hopefully he’ll get to a few finals with us
Good news. Based on how luck we are, were he to play he would’ve for sure get injured.
Who knows, so why do you ask? PATRICK, AS YOU WELL KNOW, WE ARE NOT PARTY TO CONTRACTS.
His former club insisted that Arsenal forgo a whole year of making use of the lad and we obliged.
They are dishonoring our training program for our own player.
If St. Etienne is to win the finals, they, instead of Arsenal will benefit from such feat. So if the final and Saliba’s participation is that important for them, they would definitely make sacrifices to have him and Arsenal on their side for the finals.
The most annoying part is after all the sacrifices made by Arsenal, the French club still wants Arsenal to pay them 2 Millions if he plays in the final and he can even get injured in a venture that won’t benefit us in anyway and we end up paying for his recovery.
I think that would be the stupidest thing for Arsenal to do.
Players gain confidence by winning medals with their contribution. I say he would be pissed off if Arsenal didn’t agree…
I fully agree Admin Pat.
I however believe that Arsenal would be better off managing his displeasure than to allow St. Etienne rip us off with their terms. And the awkward situation that we may find ourselves in in case he gets injured.
I am glad to have read that he already joined up with the squad in preparation for next season. There is not much time for pre season and this will be a good time for MA to know his abilities and as to whether he would be an upgrade or not, in order to make a well informed final transfer decisions.
Morally, Arsenal should allow Saliba to feature in final of the cup but financially, it is not a good move. The two million should be off the record if St Etienne wants him to play for them in the final.
I really don’t get why we should be paying them £2 million so he can play a game for them. Anyone care to enlighten me please?
so do I