William Saliba's passionate vow to "show Arsenal what he's made of" could actually provide Mikel Arteta with more problems than solutions next season.
The Gunners boss has been in the firing line over mishandling Saliba since he took the helm at the Emirates, as the young central-defender was purchased by Arteta's predecessor Unai Emery. Three years have passed since the Frenchman joined Arsenal, yet he still sits on zero competitive appearances for the club.
Saliba has embarked on three separate loan spells since officially becoming an Arsenal player, at Saint-Etienne, OGC Nice and most recently Marseille - helping Les Phocéens secure Champions League football next term. The decision to sanction a third loan away from the club is one that sparked criticism.
However, Arteta has recently leapt to defence of the decision and claimed that Saliba would have found his game-time drastically reduced had he stayed in North London. "If he had stayed with us this year, with a match of Premier League a week, with Ben White and Gabriel, he wouldn't have had half the playing time he had with Marseille, that's for sure," the Arsenal boss explained.
"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. We made the right decision."
Arteta's mentioning of White and Gabriel raises question marks, given both players enjoyed solid seasons last term and are not going anywhere else any time soon.
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White only joined the Gunners less than 12 months ago for a large transfer fee of £50million and even took Saliba's number four squad number in the process. That alone sparked talk of a potential rivalry between the two young defenders once Saliba eventually returned.
Now that moment is nearly upon us, with the France international ending any talk of a potential Arsenal exit and confirming he'll join up with the Gunners for pre-season. "I belong to Arsenal, and I still have two years there," Saliba told TF1 , per Get Football News France.
"I will be there for pre-season with Arsenal. I have played zero matches with Arsenal and I want to show them what I'm made of and have the chance to play for the supporters and for this big club. In any case, leaving like that would be a shame."
Shame would be an understatement - if Arsenal admitted defeat and sanctioned the sale of a hugely promising young central defender who cost £27m before they'd even handed him his debut, it would have gone down as one of the most bizarre transfers in recent memory.
However, that does not mean that keeping Saliba around is an option that doesn't bring its own problems - it seems as if one of Arsenal's three very talented centre-backs could be left unhappy with their amount of playing time next term.
