Arsenal have told player ‘they want to extend his contract’ – Club still hoping to secure deal

Wanting William Saliba to get some minutes this past season, Arsenal organised for the young Frenchman to head to Marseille.

The defender embraced the pressure in the south of France and quickly established himself as a key member of the first-team under Jorge Sampaoli, eventually helping the club return to the Champions League.

This led the Ligue 1 side to wonder if they could try and keep him for longer, something both Arsenal and Mikel Arteta decided would not happen.

That was certainly a setback for Marseille’s transfer plans, but that doesn’t mean they’ve fully given up, as explained by L’Equipe on Thursday.

The French newspaper look at the business the Ligue 1 club could do this summer, and explain Sampaoli ‘absolutely wants to see Saliba again next season’.

However, the Arsenal man will return to the Emirates first, where Arteta ‘counts on him’, and the London club have told him ‘they want to extend his contract’.

This makes any deal ‘complex’, but the strategy ‘is simple’, both from Marseille and Saliba, as both parties ‘will wait to see if the words from the English club turns into action this summer’.

That means that if the centre-back ‘isn’t satisfied from his game time’, the French team can then attack, and why not try to pull off another loan.

Saliba’s main aim is to make Didier Deschamps’ squad for the 2022 World Cup, and he knows, having already picked up caps during his time at Marseille, he will need to play regularly to achieve that.