Discussions to start this month on €30m+ Arsenal transfer – Gunners see player as future so want big fee

Marseile president Pablo Longoria last week spoke in the French media about his desire to keep William Saliba at the club.

The defender is on loan at the Ligue 1 side from Arsenal, after Mikel Arteta decided Saliba wasn’t ready to regularly represent the Gunners in the Premier League.

That Arteta decision surprised some, who have felt justified in their stance given the player’s success back in France.

L’Equipe look at this again, and at Marseille’s chances of keeping the loan player from Arsenal beyond the end of the current season.

It’s explained that people at the London club now concede that Saliba is the future, and a player who will become important, and for that reason they’d want a big fee for a permanent sale.

L’Equipe say Arsenal will ‘certainly’ ask for more than the €30m they paid to sign him in the first place. That’s a huge amount for Marseille, for whom a new loan would be more realistic.

Even that would be ‘much more expensive’ than the current one, and there’s also the issue of other clubs around Europe being interested.