William Saliba has opened up about his move to Arsenal and Mikel Arteta amid talks of a permanent transfer to Marseille.
The Frenchman joined the Unai Emery revolution back in the summer of 2019 but is yet to make a first-team appearance for the Gunners, enjoying successful loan spells with Saint Etienne, Nice and most recently Marseille.
Saliba has been in stellar form for Jorge Sampaoli's side this season, registering a whopping 14 clean sheets - hugely impressive numbers considering he is still just 20 years old.
Some reports from France have claimed that the Ligue 1 giants want to bring him to the Stade Velodrome on a permanent basis this summer but football.london understands that the talented youngster still intends to return to Arsenal at the end of the current campaign.
Now, the dominant centre-half has claimed that Arteta didn't think he was ready to play for the Gunners yet.
When asked if he had regrets about moving to the north London club, he told RMC Sport: "You don’t have to have them. There are things like that in football. There are difficult times. It’s not all rosy.
"Even if it didn’t go well on a personal level, I take it as an experience. It gave me a stronger mentality.
"Before going to Arsenal, I said to myself that I was going to play, I was convinced I would, I wondered who I was going to play with. I then arrived, I didn’t play any games, I played with the under-23s. It gave me a good slap.
"Today, I am more focused. We have to do more each time. For the coach [Arteta], I wasn’t ready yet.
"When there was the first lockdown, I was at home in Paris. I didn’t do anything at all, I only ran a little, I didn’t have any physical condition.
"Then the question was asked whether I was going to play in the Coupe de France [for Saint-Etienne]. Then I came back. I trained for two weeks on my own. We had two or three friendlies but I had to regain physical condition.
"The league then followed quickly and the coach felt that I was not ready. I respect his decision."
