Marseille eye permanent move for Arsenal’s William Saliba
Saliba impressing with Marseille
Arsenal secured Williams Saliba’s services in the summer of 2019.
The Gunners are believed to have forked over around £27m for the centre-back.
Despite the hefty fee, however, Arsenal are yet to hand Saliba a senior appearance.
Instead, the centre-back has now been loaned out to three separate clubs, the latest of which is Marseille.
Despite his tender years, the 20-year-old has been a key figure for Marseille so far this term, starting in all but one of their Ligue 1 clashes in 2021/22.
And Saliba has impressed in said ties, including during a 0-0 draw with PSG in which he was able to keep Kylian Mbappe and co. fairly quiet.
Marseille are also having a solid season as a squad, sitting 4th in the French top-flight with just one point separating them and 2nd place Lens.
Marseille want Saliba permanently
Now, after impressing during the first few months of his loan, Marseille are seemingly eager to keep Saliba beyond his current loan spell.
According to journalist Ekrem Konur, Marseille want to keep Saliba permanently and talks will begin with Arsenal soon:
🔥Olympique de Marseille want to keep William Saliba in the team permanently.
📞Talks with Arsenal will begin soon.#AFC #Gooners | #OM #MercatOM |
🔻VOLE🔻
🔜 https://t.co/FGB5A8DzJX pic.twitter.com/cDuGQts9XQ— Ekrem KONUR (@Ekremkonur) November 15, 2021
Should Arsenal sell William Saliba?
But should Arsenal look to sell Saliba? At present Mikel Arteta has two superb, young centre-backs in the form of Ben White and Gabriel.
The pair could easily be the Gunners’ main centre-back duo for the next several years, with Rob Holding, Calum Chambers and even Takehiro Tomiyasu also able to fill in at centre-back.
So, whilst a case could be made that Arsenal have enough cover at centre-back without Saliba, the Frenchman clearly has a lot of potential and the Gunners missing out on that is unlikely to please their fans
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