William Saliba is at loggerheads with Arsenal chiefs after the club received four enquires from across Europe for the highly-rated defender.
Premier League rivals Newcastle and Leicester are reportedly targeting Saliba ahead of the summer transfer window, while Atletico Madrid and Napoli have admired his loan spell with Marseille and also registered their interest.
The 21-year-old recently claimed the Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year award for his impressive performances in the south of France and he is wanted back in the English capital by Gunners manager Mikel Arteta. However, rather than return to the Emirates, it has been claimed that Saliba, who has also been linked with AC Milan, wants to extend his stay at Marseille for another season.
According to L'Equipe, via Get Football News France, the French giants and Arsenal are aware of his desire to continue playing first-team football rather than sit on the bench back in North London. The France international is desperate to remain in Didier Deschamps ' squad for the World Cup later this year, having only recently broken into the senior set-up.
The Gunners has set a €30million (£25.5million) price tag on Saliba, an amount which Marseille are unlikely to be able to offer despite finishing in the Champions League places for just the second time in eight years. Club president Pablo Longoria plans to open discussions with Arsenal but wants to be respectful towards the Gunners.
"We had a lot of conversations analysing William Saliba's season, especially in the last few days," Longoria told RMC Sport. "He's coming off an extraordinary season, with one of the highest number of matches played in Europe. He also joined the France team, which is incredible at his age. We discussed a lot internally about what we can do, to find out what the possibilities are.
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"We respect his club, we have to thank Arsenal. It's a friendly club that helped us a lot during the last transfer window. We have very good relations. We have to talk to each other, see if there is the possibility of reaching an agreement between the clubs, there is the player's will, the club's will… But above all, we must respect Arsenal."
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has insisted that Saliba, who was signed for £27m from Saint-Etienne in 2019, "has to come back" for next term, having previously been reluctant to give him first-team opportunities. "He has the experience and the necessary environment to be competitive with us," Arteta affirmed to RMC.
The Gunners boss also shed light on why Saliba was loaned out last season following Benjamin White 's £50million arrival. The Spaniard said: "If he had stayed with us this year, with one Premier League game a week and with White and Gabriel [Magalhaes], he wouldn't have had half the game time he had with Marseille, that's for sure.
"In terms of his growth and what he could do next year it wouldn't have been good. William wasn't with us because he wouldn't have had the playing time required to gain experience. That's it, nothing else."
