Sent to Marseille for the season, William Saliba developed more than most could imagine under Jorge Sampaoli, earning himself some France caps in the process.
This was good news for Arsenal and Mikel Arteta, with the aim of the deal being to get the young centre-back the game time he wouldn’t get at the Emirates.
The expectation was always for him to return to the Gunners once the season came to an end, but that was before he fell in love with Marseille and claims that he wanted to stay emerged.
Arteta himself made it clear he wanted to work with Saliba next season in London, which made life more complicated for the Ligue 1 side, who would prefer to keep him around, and now the player himself said he wants to show what he can do in the Premier League.
This means, as La Provence put it in a big article on Monday, ‘advantage Arsenal’ in all this, even if someone close to the player told the newspaper that the defender’s recent words don’t change anything to date.
Marseille still want to keep him and ‘aren’t letting go’ of that hope, but doing so would mean convincing the London side to a new loan, because buying him outright this year would be difficult.
There’s hope their guaranteed place in next year’s Champions League could help, as well as the fact Benjamin White and Gabriel are the favoured pairing at Arsenal these days, but it’s clear they face an uphill battle, much to the likely delight of many fans of the Gunners, who are excited to see what Saliba can do for their team next year.
