William Saliba has been speaking about his future next season and has revealed he was “hurt” after being jettisoned by Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
After signing in July 2019 for a fee reported to be around £27m he was immediately loaned back to St Etienne for the 2019/20 season. There were big plans for the 18-year-old. And he might well have expected to have collected in excess of 50 appearances for the club by now.
But the fact is that the centre-back has yet to kick a ball for the Arsenal first team. Arteta decided that the French-born defender needed to develop away from The Emirates.
After featuring in pre-season in 2020, he was then an unused sub in the Community Shield, but that is as close to the first team has he got. Instead he was loaned to Nice and this term he landed at Marseille where he is impressing.
Saliba, now 21, looks like he is starting to fulfil his potential. He has played 28 times for OM this term and become a key member of Jorge Sampaoli’s team.
He is expected to return to London this summer and only time will tell whether Arteta is ready to take the player into his first-team squad.
Saliba seems open to a return, but he has spoken about the torture of failing to feature for Arteta.
Asked if he has heard from the Gunners, Saliba told L’Equipe, via Sport Witness: “They are often in contact with my agent. And they send me messages. They watch my matches. They tell me that we have to continue like this.
Saliba: The Coach made his…
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