William Saliba has earned himself a call-up to the France national side at senior level for the first time following his impressive performances on loan at Marseille.
The 20-year-old could now realistically don the colours of his country before he pulls on the red and white shirt of parent club Arsenal, despite the fact he signed for the Gunners way back in the summer of 2019. Under the guidance of Unai Emery at the time, huge excitement and anticipation followed Saliba's arrival to the Emirates, though it is yet to be truly justified.
That is not to suggest it is any fault of the player, Arsenal's handling of a talent as prestigious as Saliba has raised plenty of question marks as the Frenchman nears the final furlong of his third loan spell since his switch from Saint-Etienne just under three years ago. It was always the plan that Saliba would re-join his former side immediately on loan for the remainder of the 2019/20 campaign.
However, when Emery's reign in the Emirates hot-seat was cut short in November of 2019 - Mikel Arteta was handed the reins in his place. The Spaniard is now famed for his no-nonsense, disciplined approach and when the former Gunners midfielder makes a decision he sticks to it.
One of his first was to deem Saliba not quite ready for first-team action in the Premier League just yet, much to the dismay of the Arsenal fanbase desperate to see their £30million acquisition in action. Given the Covid-19 pandemic had ended the Ligue 1 season prematurely, alongside some persistent injuries Saliba did not play a sufficient amount while back at Saint-Etienne in the eyes of Arteta.
As a result, the decision was taken to give Saliba another season away from the club - yet a spectacular failing on Arsenal's part meant the defender spent the first-half of the 2020/21 campaign wasting away in North London without any kind of meaningful competition. Technical director Edu had failed to find Saliba another club to go to on loan, while Arteta had not registered the defender in his Premier League or Europa League squads.
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Instead, the 20-year-old enjoyed the occasional run out for Arsenal's U-23 side in the Papa John's Trophy - his only first-team experience outside of training at London Colney coming in the form of a pre-season friendly away at MK Dons. The sorry saga led to Saliba risking the wrath of Arteta when he appeared to suggest he was "locked up" at the Emirates.
Commenting on an Instagram post of Gunners teammate Matteo Guendouzi who was on loan at Hertha Berlin at the time, Saliba was jokingly told off by Nicolas Pepe who wrote: "This is your problem, you comment on everything." The defender fired back: "Hahaha, I'm sending well wishes to the brother that was locked up like me."
Many interpreted the comment as a not-so-subtle dig at Arteta, who had also exiled Guendouzi for a number of disciplinary breaches. Speaking in December of 2020, the Arsenal boss said of Saliba: "To be fair he has made massive improvements in the last few months. It’s a really tricky situation for him.
"But as I’ve mentioned before, we designed a pathway for him but a lot of things happened to him in his personal life and professionally as well." The January transfer window of 2021 eventually arrived and a second-loan spell away from North London was sanctioned as Saliba spent the rest of that season with OGC Nice.
While there, Saliba appeared to take issue with his parent club in public once again by accusing Arteta of not giving him a chance. "I was waiting for him to give me a chance, but football is like that,” he told RMC Sport. "When I initially came to Arsenal the league looked very good, so I showed up to training and wanted to train on my own to show the coach I was ready.
"It hurt me, it affected me,” Saliba later told TF1. "I don't think I left too early. When you feel ready you have to go. I don't think I left too early. These things happen. I believe in myself. Honestly, if you told me a year ago, I honestly would not have believed you.
"I really, really, really didn't think that I would be transferred for £30m and to think that I would arrive, where people were expecting a lot from me and the fans were excited about me, and you find yourself in the reserves, play zero, zero nothing in the Europa League or the league. I was in the squad once in the League Cup."
Having made the Ligue 1 team of the week on a number of occasions with Nice, the Arsenal faithful could barely believe it when Saliba was permitted to embark on a third loan spell for the entirety of the 2021/22 campaign back to his home country to ply his trade for Marseille. The 10-time Ligue 1 champions have undoubtedly seen the best form of Saliba's career to date.
Not only has his talent helped inspire Marseille to second in the Ligue 1 table as well as the joint-second best defensive record in the entire division, but it is also a loan spell that has so far passed by without any clear digs at Arsenal or Arteta. On the contrary, Saliba actually claimed the situation at the Emirates "felt good".
"You have to fight in a career. We must take that as a lesson to go further. It gave me a little slap to say: 'You are nobody!' You can be bought for 30 million euros, arrive in a club and we put you aside," he admitted. "I took this experience by being positive. I feed on it. I know what it's like not to play for six months. Today, I want to play every game.
"It puts the ideas back in place. Before arriving at Arsenal, I said to myself: 'Who am I going to play with?' And then you are not even in the group in the Premier League. It gives you a good slap, it feels good. It brings you back to reality." The reality for Saliba now of course, is that he is on the cusp of becoming a senior France international in what would be the latest enhancement to an already glistening reputation.
Prior to upping sticks to the south of France for the season, Arteta was optimistic over Saliba's latest loan: "He will come back for pre-season and he will be with us. Hopefully, he will come back after playing a number of games and his performance raising and his development progressing in the right way. That’s why we made that decision.
"I know that sometimes it's difficult to explain or understand after the money that the club has spent trying to bring him in, to send him on loan. "But a lot of things have happened to him he's a long-term player for us and we need to protect him as well. And giving him three or four games is not enough.
"For him, he needs much more than that, because what happened in the last 18 months, he's been through some personal problems as well that we have to try to help him and stay as close as possible to him. And now he needs to play, play and play and enjoy his profession as well. And in order to do that, I think we found the right club with him. He's very happy to go there now. Hopefully, he can enjoy his football and be ready for us for next season."
Saliba looks more ready than he has ever been, often dubbed the 'Mbappe of defenders' back in France, the 20-year-old is only going from strength-to-strength for both club and now country. Should the season end the way Arteta wishes, the young centre-back will be returning to a Champions League club.
