Journalist Charles Watts has recently talked about the future of Arsenal defender William Saliba.
Arsenal had signed Saliba from Saint-Etienne in the summer of 2019 but the Frenchman spent the 2020/21 campaign on loan at Nice. He’s now been linked with another loan move back to France, while Newcastle United and Southampton have also been linked with him.
Meanwhile, there had been claims that Marseille had negotiated an option-to-buy loan agreement for Saliba, which could have seen him join the French side permanently for as little as €10m (£7m).
Watts appeared in the latest video on his YouTube channel, where he spoke about multiple potential transfers involving Arsenal this summer. He talked about the future of Saliba, claiming that a potential loan move to Marseille isn’t close to being done yet, but it could certainly happen this summer.
Should Arsenal loan out Saliba again?
Yes
No
The journalist also spoke about whether there will be any obligation-to-buy agreement in the deal or not.
He said: “As far as I’m aware, we’re not anywhere near a stage of [a deal] being done yet with Marseille. But it is certainly on the cards that he could be going there and joining [Matteo] Guendouzi on loan for the season – not permanent, as far as I’m aware – it will be a loan deal. There’s been a lot of talk about an obligation clause being inserted into this one. I’m not sure that’s going to be the case.”
TIF Thoughts on Saliba’s future…
Saliba is yet to play for the Arsenal first team in his career, but he played quite a bit for Saint-Etienne and for Nice in his loan spells since joining the Gunners. The 20-year-old has always picked up WhoScored match ratings of over 6.50 in every season that he’s played in France.
It perhaps suggests he’s not a bad player at all and he might be good enough for Arsenal. Having said that, he’s still only 20 and has quite a bit of time on his hands. Arsenal have a fair amount of centre-back options in the team, too – so loaning him out again to help him continue his development may be a sensible idea.
In other news: “Someone they want to bring in” – Aston Villa journalist drops summer transfer update