Arteta wants Saliba at Arsenal next season
Since signing for Arsenal in a whopping £27 million deal in 2019, William Saliba still hasn’t featured for the Gunners.
Loaning him straight back to St. Etienne was part of the deal which Saliba had previous knowledge about. But the young Frenchman would not have predicted not playing for Arsenal for the next two seasons.
However, that might change this year as French news outlet Le Equipe (reported by Football.London) has claimed the 20-year-old is part of Arteta’s project and will be finally integrated into the young Arsenal team.
The report says that Marseille are pushing Arsenal to sell them Saliba or at least extend the loan by another year, but Arteta has no intention of giving in to any offers.
As we all know, when asked about William Saliba in September, Arteta told The Mirror: “He will come back for pre-season and he will be with us. Hopefully he will come back after playing a number of games and his performance raising and his development progressing in the right way. That’s why we made that decision.
“I know that sometimes it’s difficult to explain or understand after the money that the club has spent trying to bring him in, to send him on loan.
“But a lot of things have happened to him he’s a long-term player for us and we need to protect him as well. And giving him three or four games is not enough.
“For him, he needs much more than that, because what happened in the last 18 months, he’s been through some personal problems as well that we have to try to help him and stay as close as possible to him.
‘Marseille was the right club for Saliba,’ claims Arteta
The Spaniard continued, “And now he needs to play, play and play and enjoy his profession as well. And in order to do that I think we found the right club with him.
“He’s very happy to go there now. Hopefully he can enjoy his football and be ready for us for next season.”
This bit of news will be warmly embraced by the Gunners faithful, who have craved to see the talented Frenchman in the iconic Red and White jersey.
That might not be far away. And with the young center forwards Arsenal have been linked with recently, you can only wonder what the team would look like in the next campaign.