Has there been a more unpredictable story surrounding Arsenal than that of whether William Saliba has a future at Arsenal? It is difficult to find something more chaotic than that of the young French defender.
The Arsenal youngster has gathered quite the following despite never having played a senior competitive match for the club. Saliba has gone on three loans since he signed for nearly £30 million in 2019 with his most recent at Marseille drawing quite the praise.
He has impressed so much in fact he has now made back-to-back French national side call-ups. There is a real possibility that he will make the World Cup squad for Qatar.
READ MORE: William Saliba completes Marseille loan deal with Arsenal return most optimistic it has been
William Saliba was quoted as being open to returning to Marseille to play Champions League football. However, it appears that the doorway back to OM has been closed by Arteta who is expecting him to return.
“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.
“If he had stayed with us this year, where we had one Premier League game every week, with Ben White and Gabriel [Magalhaes], 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 facing significant criticism for how Arteta has ‘handled’ the Saliba situation, if the reality transpires that he does indeed return and integrate then it will be difficult to argue that his management was anything but appropriate. Although it may be tricky for some to see it that way.
Particularly because the club should have registered him in the Premier League and Europa League squads in 2020. This spell with the under-23s was avoidable and the club bear responsibility for that, as Arteta has already admitted.
Now though, after 18 months of regular playing time, this has allowed Saliba to grow and mature. He was rightly judged not to be ready yet for first-team action at Arsenal.
Prior to his loan with Nice, he had played 28 league matches in approximately two and a half years. He had missed games due to injury, fitness and the impacts of the pandemic curtailing the Ligue 1 season.
He managed 20 games on loan with Nice in Ligue 1 and needed a proper full season under his belt. He had not had one in his entire senior career, playing regularly.
Arsenal now will see a more mature Saliba come back ready to fight for his place. He can rediscover what joining Arsenal meant to him and why he rightly described it as special. It could perhaps end up being the perfect preparation for a, hopefully, very successful career in north London.
