William Saliba has flourished from having another full season of competitive football under his belt, and the Frenchman’s choices appear to have caught the eye of Arsenal ’s youngster Miguel Azeez.
The defender was awarded Ligue 1 Player of the Season recently for his successful season-long spell at Marseille, with manager Jorge Sampaoli openly admitting he would love Saliba to return. But reports have circulated that Gunners boss Mikel Arteta’s plans for next season include the central defender.
Saliba’s time out on loan has certainly solidified his claims as to why he should be an Arsenal regular, unwilling to sit on the bench at the Emirates Stadium hoping that an opportunity for him to impress would arise. And that attitude appears to have rubbed off on exciting prospect Azeez.
The 19-year-old has revealed that he wants to spend a season out on loan next season. The midfielder told The Athletic : “I want to play the whole season in senior football. Wherever that is, that’s the main goal.
“This season, I wanted to improve the defensive side of my game, whether it’s competing in 50-50s or second balls. It was about me going out of my way to do extra stuff after training with one of the assistants.
“Him kicking the ball randomly and me judging where the ball will land to pick up seconds. There was a mixture of analysis with coaches and me actually going out and practising myself. I also wanted to improve my goal involvement (goals and assists) — I’ve done that steadily, but there’s still more to come.”
Azeez evidently has the attitude and aspirations of a player willing to go the extra mile to reach the very top, so he will certainly feel that his loan spell at Portsmouth earlier this season underwhelmed. He made just five appearances in League 1 and was swiftly recalled by Arsenal after realising he may improve further back at the club.
Gunners under-23s manager Kevin Betsy has since been working with Azeez and has been vocal in his high hopes for the midfielder. He told Football.London : “In terms of Miguel, he came back having not had a fantastic experience at Portsmouth in terms of game time, but a really good learning one for him, so for him it was about getting him up to match speed.
"In the first couple of games we discussed how it’s not going to be easy, 23s football is still very competitive, and you’re not going to be able to put your foot on the ball, and control things and win second balls because you aren’t match fit enough yet. But with every game that came, he improved his level, and then we flipped him around, sometimes to play deeper roles to challenge him on the 360 and work on his defensive actions, and other times in the eight so can also get his attributes where he’s good at goal scoring."
Arteta has often given young talents a chance to impress in the first team, but Azeez’s adamance on going out on loan will suggest that the Arsenal faithful won’t see their exciting prospect for another campaign. It remains to be seen whether the player gets his wish of a move and just how successful he will be as a result.
