Arsenal chief sends Saliba on loan with ‘confident’ message
Arsenal centre-half William Saliba has returned to France on loan.
Saliba finally joined Arsenal in the summer, a year after the Gunners paid £27m to sign him from Saint-Etienne.
The defender was sent straight back to the Ligue Un club for the 2019/20 season but was at the centre of a controversy surrounding his return to north London.
Saliba has failed to establish himself in the first team under a “fed up” Mikel Arteta since, with David Ornstein explaining his struggles recently.
As a result, Arsenal have sent him back to France on loan, this time with mid-table Nice, in what technical director Edu hopes will help him “develop” through more regular playing opportunities.
“William Saliba is a player with a huge amount of talent and potential,” he told the official Arsenal website. “We’re confident he will have a great career with us but we must remember that he is still only 19 years old and has a lot of time ahead of him.
“William experienced a very challenging time last year, with his playing time limited by injury and the early ending of the Ligue Un season due to the pandemic.
“So together with William, we have decided that spending the rest of the season on loan with Nice is the best way for him to develop.
“We will be keeping in close contact with William during his time with Nice and look forward to seeing him make good progress until the end of the season.”
The deal is indeed planned to last until the end of the season but French newspaper L’Equipe have reported that it is ‘susceptible’ to being extended a further 18 months until summer 2022 if all goes well.