Arsenal ‘100% counting on’ defender ‘for the future’, Romano claims

Arsenal are “very happy” with William Saliba’s performances for Marseille and they are relying on him “for the future”, according to Fabrizio Romano.
Saliba joined the Gunners in 2019 from French outfit Saint-Etienne. The Londoners paid around £27m to bring the defender to the Premier League.
The 20-year-old is yet to make his senior debut for Arsenal. He has spent the last couple of years on loan in Ligue 1.
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Saliba re-joined Saint-Etienne in 2019/20 before he spent last season with Nice. In July, he joined Marseille on loan for the 2021/22 campaign.
The centre-back has played the full 90 minutes in all but one of Marseille’s eight Ligue 1 games so far this season.
During the latest episode of his Here We Go podcast, respected journalist Romano suggested that Arsenal have big plans for Saliba:
“Arsenal are following William Saliba’s performance with Marseille, they are very happy with him. The club told him several weeks ago that they were counting 100% on him for the future of Arsenal.”
“He’s a very nice guy, very hard working. We worked on a number of things such as speed, power, you know he’s a big guy also and he’s strong.
“When you’re so young and you’re big and strong you aren’t as quick as the smaller guys. We worked a bit on that and he did really well.
“When I first saw him I thought of Van Dijk because of his positions of plays and he has the right potential to make it far.
“I know a lot of young players I can see that some get distracted when they come to Dubai but he was working hard and he’s got the right environment.
“William is humble. Arsenal fans are annoyed right now because he’s not at the club and he’s doing really well in Marseille but I think last season he missed some games on top of COVID. Saliba needs to play more and he will come good.
“He does not want to come to Arsenal and sit on the bench – that’s not his mentality. He wants to be playing for Arsenal. I think next season he will make a solid case for himself.”