After working so hard to sign him, it seems as though he is not yet ready to be part of the Arsenal first team.
Sky Sports has reported that Arsenal could be looking to send Saliba out on loan again for this season as he doesn’t seem to be part of Arteta’s immediate plans.
After paying £30million to sign the highly rated defender from Saint Etienne last year he only joined up with Arsenal this summer after it was agreed that he would stay on loan with Saint Etienne. And seeing as he did not feature in the Carabao Cup win over Liverpool on Thursday night it seems more and more likely that he will be on the way out for this season on another loan spell..
It comes as Arteta speaking to Sky Sports after the win against Liverpool midweek said that he feels that William needs to go out and gain some more experience:
“He had a year last year where Arsenal loaned him to St Etienne and that was a transition year for him. For many reasons, that wasn’t the transition year that he needed because he had a lot of injuries, some personal injuries and also with COVID and the French league getting cancelled, he didn’t have that year. He needs that year of transition and we are trying to make the right decisions for him to give him the best transitional year for him to have the player we want in our future.”
It would be a shame to send him back out on loan without giving him a chance to show what he is capable of, but as we have been doing so far, we have to trust the Arteta process and if he comes back an even better player, than I am sure we won’t be complaining. Gooners?
Shenel Osman