Arsenal are preparing to send Auston Trusty out on a season-long loan to Birmingham City in the hope he will follow a similar pathway to William Saliba.
The Gunners signed Trusty on January transfer deadline day from Colorado Rapids, but the youngster stayed on loan with the MLS side. The 23-year-old has now joined up with Arsenal, but will not be a part of the club’s pre-season tour to the USA.
Instead he is set to join Birmingham on loan to further his development, according to Birmingham Live . Trusty will be playing outside of his native country for the first time, but is very highly-rated from his time in MLS.
The 6ft 3in defender made his MLS debut in 2018 for Philadelphia Union and became the youngest player in the league’s history to play every minute across a full 34-game season that same year. Last year he helped Colorado Rapids win the Western Conference for the first time in their history.
His move to Arsenal came around thanks to the club’s relationship with the Rapids, who are also owned by Kroenke Sports Entertainment. While Trusty is highly regarded and has a wealth of experience for a young defender, having made 123 senior appearances for Philadelphia and Colorado, he is not considered ready for the Arsenal first team.
That is where Birmingham come into the equation, with the Championship side hopefully able to offer him regular game time which will help him acclimate to a new country. There are some parallels between Trusty’s Arsenal career path and Saliba.
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While Saliba is set to finally be given a shot at making the Gunners first team this summer, he has spent the last three years out on loan. The French centre-back has been on loan with Saint-Etienne, Nice and Marseille since making a £27million move from Saint-Etienne to north London in 2019. The 21-year-old defender is yet to make his first-team debut for the Gunners, but has established quite the reputation in his native France. He was named Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year and was included in the division’s Team of the Year following his exploits with Marseille last season.
Saliba’s form has been so impressive in France that he has drawn plenty of transfer attention in the past few weeks. Arsenal have rebuffed such interest and have taken Saliba on their pre-season tour of the US, where he will compete with Gabriel Magalhaes, Ben White and Rob Holding for a starting spot at centre-back.
Despite not spending any time at Arsenal, Saliba’s reputation is such that he is being talked up as the future of the side’s defence by former Gunners defender and academy manager Per Mertesacker.
“What William has done in Marseille is magnificent. So for us to really test him this summer and see what’s best for him,” Mertesacker told HaytersTV. “But he has clearly made his mark with his young age with his playing in a major league in Europe and been one of the best players in Europe. So why not use him?”
