There has been a million column inches in the Arsenal media over the young Frenchman William Saliba, despite the fact that he has never kicked a ball for the senior Arsenal side after being bought for big money three years ago.
Even now, we still don’t know whether the centre-back will be returning to the Emirates in the summer as Marseille are desperate to keep Saliba with them on a permanent basis.
And now there is yet another possibility, with the Spanish Sport.es reporting that they are keen to take the 20 year-old to the Bernabeau.
The report stated….
Center back William Saliba is on Real Madrid’s agenda for next season. The young French player thus joins the list of alternatives managed by the club, along with the Germans Niklas Süle and Antonio Rüdiger, to reinforce his defense. His case is special, since he has a direct link with the great objective of the Madrid club, Kylian Mbappé.
Saliba already interested the Madrid club during his time at Saint-Étienne, before Arsenal paid 30 million euros in 2019 for his rights. With the ‘Gunners’ he barely had opportunities to play and returned to Ligue 1 on loan, first to play for Nice and since last summer at Olympique de Marseille, where he has regained his projection.
The link with Mbappe is interesting, as Madrid are making a big play for the young French striker to join the Galacticos in the summer, and it appears that Saliba and Mbappe went to the same school in a small town called Bondy in the northeastern suburbs of Paris, and in fact Mbappe’s father was Saliba’s coach in his schoolboy days. “He taught me everything, and if I’m here it’s thanks to him. As his father was my coach, I used to go to Kylian’s house,” Saliba admitted to the newspaper ‘Le Populaire’.
This could make things interesting for Arsenal in the summer. I know Arteta has always said that Saliba is a future Arsenal player, but who knows what could happen if a bidding war started for the youngster and there was a chance for the Gunners to make a huge profit on the sale?
Saliba himself has recently told the Mirror that he is simply going to wait until the end of the season to see what transpires. He said: “Before going to Arsenal, I said to myself I was going to play, I was sure, I was wondering who I would play alongside.
“I arrive, I play 0 matches. I played for the U23s. That gave me a good slap.
“Things go so fast in football. I don’t want to think about the future. I am going to give my all. Then there will be discussions in summer.”
It could be that Saliba himself may get the final say in where he will play next season, especially if Arsenal don’t qualify for the Champions League, with both Marseille and Madrid looking certain to be playing in the Premier competition…