Mikel Arteta wants Saliba, but does Saliba want Arsenal?
FT Desk
- Updated: 24 May 2022 15:24 BST
- 4 min read
William Saliba looks increasingly likely to be at Arsenal next season after manager Mikel Arteta demanded he return to the club.
Saliba made the move to the Emirates Stadium in 2019 from Saint-Etienne but has spent much of the intervening period back in France. Indeed, the expensive acquisition has yet to make his first-team debut for the Gunners.
Arsenal, though, increasingly look likely to welcome him into the first-team fold in the summer after a quite remarkable season with Marseille.
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Indeed, Arteta told RMC on Tuesday that he expects Saliba to be part of his squad in 2022-23.
What did Arteta say about Saliba?
"He has to come back. He has the experience and the environment necessary to be competitive with us,” Arteta said.
"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. 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."
Saliba helped OM to Champions League qualification, a semi-final place in the Europa Conference League and, on a personal basis, made his France international debut.
Arteta on William Saliba:
“He has to come back. He has the experience and the environment to be competitive with us.” 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/SBqYJgeSBi— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley_) May 24, 2022
Perhaps the greatest seal of approval of his performance this season, though, arrived a fortnight ago at the UNFP Awards, which are the French equivalent to the Premier League’s Players’ Player of the Year prizes.
At the ceremony in Paris, Saliba was named the Young Player of the Year and was named in the Ligue 1 Team of the Year along with Marseille team-mate Dimitri Payet.
“I’m very happy to have won this trophy, it’s a very difficult award to win in a league where there are a lot of good young players and some very good players,” he said.
Saliba to return to Arsenal
But, despite Arteta’s request for Arteta to return, Saliba himself wants to make his stay at Marseille permanent.
"I want to come back and play the Champions League. I have never played in it and I want to discover it here,” Saliba said last weekend.
With Arsenal failing to qualify for the Champions League after finishing fifth, this could strengthen his desire to stay at Marseille.
Additionally, Saliba has not had the best relationship with Arteta until now and has criticised the Spaniard publicly on a number of occasions.
It will be interesting to see how this saga plays out but, from a financial point of view, the prospects of the Ligue 1 side retaining the central defender look slim.
Although both the player and Marseille are open to a move, it is unlikely that Marseille have the economic capacity to complete a transfer.
Even if Arteta and Arsenal are convinced to sell, it will be difficult for Marseille to match an asking price that could reach at least €35 million.
