Arsenal boss Arteta is ‘fed up’ that £25m Saliba is ‘fed up’

Will Ford
Mikel Arteta Arsenal

Mikel Arteta has responded to reports that William Saliba is ‘fed up’ at Arsenal by admitting he too is ‘fed up’ with the situation.

Saliba joined Arsenal from Saint Etienne in 2019 and was expected to play a key role this season having spent the last back on loan at his former club.

But he is yet to feature under Arteta and has been exluded from Arsenal’s Europa League squad, with reports claiming he is ‘fed up’ with the situation.


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It is thought he was close to returning to Saint Etienne again on deadline day, but with the deal falling through Arteta admits the situation is less than ideal.

“I am fed up with the situation because as you could see we tried to find a way in the last few days [of the transfer window] to give him some football,” Arteta said.

“I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him and send him on loan to Saint-Etienne, for many reasons that didn’t happen, he didn’t have that transition year and he needs to go through that.

 

“At the moment, with the amount of central defenders that we have in the team we had to leave him out of the squad which is painful because we have some injuries and we could have used him, but it’s part of this profession.”

When asked whether a loan move in January was a possibility, the Arsenal boss added: “Yes.

“We certainly tried in the last few days of the transfer window to find the right club and we had it, but at the end of the day we could not make it.

“We will review his situation in the next few weeks, sit down with him as well and see what is the best thing to do. But it will depend on him and other players’ situations as well.”

There are no Arsenal, Chelsea or Manchester City representatives in our rundown of the top ten players of the season. Nor Manchester United, of course, but Jay Rodriguez gets in?!