Arsenal supporters could be in line for some more encouraging news regarding William Saliba as the club just might be on the verge of announcing a new contract for the defender.
The Frenchman - who scooped the 2021/22 Ligue 1 Young Player of the Season award as well as being named in Ligue 1’s Team of the Season alongside the likes of Kylian Mbappe, Marquinhos and Aurelien Tchouameni during a successful loan spell with Marseille - revealed back in May that he was planning to finally kick-start his career with the Gunners - three years on from his £27m arrival.
"I belong to Arsenal. I still have two years left," Saliba said in an interview with French television programme Telefoot on Sunday morning. "I will be back with Arsenal. I have played zero matches, and I still want to show them my true face and have the chance to play for these fans and this great club."
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Even with that declaration, there has still been a lot of work for Arsenal to do in order to avoid finding themselves in an all-too-familiar position come next summer as Saliba only has two years remaining on his contract, which according to the club's former head of football Raul Sanllehi, is hardly the ideal position to be in.
"At the end of the day, the real essence of the problem was that we had reached the last year of the contract," Sanllehi told Arsenal's official YouTube channel in May 2019 when discussing Ramsey's move to Juventus. "One of our priorities is not to get to the last year of contract and this (Ramsey's situation) is the reason why. The only way to get to the end of contract is when you're ready to release that player at the end.
"If you really want to keep that player you need to renew him before getting to the last year of contract because you're putting yourself in a very weak position - we cannot get to the last year of the contract and if we cannot get a renewal before that, then we may have to sell."
After the season Saliba has just had it handed Arsenal a further incentive to finalise his new contract and secure his long-term future. Although, the counter-argument has been that unless he signs a new deal this summer the club risk losing him for a cut-price fee in 12 months' time - or worst yet for free in 2024.
To the Gunners' credit, football.london have previously reported that the plan was to open preliminary talks regarding a new deal towards the end of the Frenchman's loan spell with Marseille. And it would appear those talks were positive as the defender's agent Niang Djibril posted a rather cryptic message on Instagram.
As seen in the image above, the post was of the room at London Colney where Saliba first signed his Arsenal contract all the way back in the summer of 2019. Furthermore, it's the same room where the likes of Eddie Nketiah, Matt Turner, Fabio Vieira and Gabriel Jesus have been seen in following major announcements this summer.
Could another be on the cards for Arsenal? These developments have happened on the day where Saliba has reported for pre-season training after being given extra time off due to his exploits with France during the June international break and following Arteta's big statement.
"William Saliba has to come back. He has the experience to be competitive with us. We sent him to Marseille for his growth," the Spaniard told RMC Sport. "William wanted to be regular starter as you know but now we want him back at Arsenal." It sends a clear message back to Saliba, after he recently claimed that he was "hurt" by being dropped to the youth team in his time at the club, with a demand for more first-team action."
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