When Arsenal got a deal over the line for William Saliba, it was widely seen as a good one.
The young centre-back had just come off the back of an impressive season with Saint-Étienne and in securing his services, it felt like the Gunners managed to put a problem area to bed for the foreseeable future.
Part of the agreement was for Saliba to spend the 2019-20 season on loan with the Ligue 1 side in order to guarantee him game time, which the French team did when he was fit.
Unfortunately for the 19-year-old, a hamstring injury and a metatarsal fracture got in the way of him getting a full season under his belt, which limited his appearances.
This is very important, because one more start for Saint-Étienne could cost Arsenal an extra €2.5m.
“But the season in France is over?”, we hear you wonder.
Yes, technically the league has been called and Paris Saint-Germain have been crowned champions yet again, but the cups still need to be finished, with plans being discussed to do so later on this summer.
It so happens that Saint-Étienne reached the final of the Coupe de France, where they will face Thomas Tuchel’s side.
This is where it gets a little bit complicated.
According to L’Equipe, Arsenal bought Saliba for €25m, and also agreed to two bonuses worth €5m between them: €2.5m if Saint-Étienne qualify for the Champions League at any point during the youngster’s contract, and €2.5m if he played in one third of games this season.
The Gunners reportedly wanted it to be two thirds, but following the agreement that Saint-Étienne weren’t allowed to play the youngster more than once a week without the Premier League club’s prior approval, it was agreed that one third was fair enough.
This means that with 52 games played in all competitions before the Covid-19 pandemic stopped the season, the clause would trigger at 17 appearances.
Looking at Saliba season’s tally, he has played 12 games in the league, three in the Coupe de France and two in the Europa League, meaning the magic number has been reached.
However, one of those appearances (a 1-0 win against Nîmes back in September) saw him come off the bench for a mere one minute, which isn’t enough to count towards the 17.
So, for Saint-Étienne to get their €2.5m, they would need Saliba to start in the Coupe de France final against Paris Saint-Germain, and there is hope, with L’Equipe claiming a source has told them as much, it could be played on August 8th.
It sounds simple enough, but in order for that to happen, Arsenal would have to agree to extend the loan until that date, since his deal there currently ends on June 30th.
Furthermore, since the game would be played just before the start of the 2020-21 campaign and after the cut off point of this year’s, the Gunners would also have to acknowledge the fact the Coupe de France final counts as a game from the 2019-20 season.
That’s where the problems really lie, as L’Equipe point out the relationship between Arsenal and Saint-Étienne has been ‘tense’ since the arrival of Claude Puel, meaning this isn’t an easy win for the Ligue 1 side.
It’s stated ‘the arm wrestling match between the two clubs, which could turn legal, has only just started’, which means expect to hear more from this in the near future.
For Saint-Étienne, they’d like this to be sorted before June 30th.
We’ll now have to wait and see if Arsenal play ball.
