Marseille president Pablo Longoria has claimed that the French club are still keen to sign Arsenal starlet William Saliba.
The talented defender spent the 2021/22 campaign on loan with the Ligue 1 outfit, enjoying an excellent season, helping his side keep 19 clean sheets across all competitions. That has seen him heavily linked with a permanent move to the Stade Velodrome but Gunners manager Mikel Arteta confirmed his desire to keep him at the Emirates Stadium next term.
"He has to come back," Arteta told RMC Sport. "He has the experience and has been in the necessary environment in order to be competitive with us.
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"If he had stayed with us this year, where we had one Premier League game every week, with Ben White and Gabriel, he wouldn’t have had half the playing time he had with Marseille, that’s for sure. For his growth and what he can do next season, that wouldn’t have been good. William wasn’t with us because he wouldn’t have had the playing time to gain experience. That’s it, there’s nothing else."
Despite the Spaniard's firm comments on Saliba's situation, Marseille president Longoria has admitted that the Les Olympiens are keen to try and sign him on a permanent basis this summer. Speaking to RMC Sport, via GFFN, he said: "We had a lot of conversations about analysing William Saliba's season, especially in the last few days.
"He is 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.
"We respect his club, we have to thank Arsenal. Arsenal are 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."
