Arsenal: 3 William Saliba options amid new developments

£27m and two years on from his arrival in north London, William Saliba’s Arsenal future has never been in such doubt. Never considered a saviour by any means, the club have succeeded in making errors in this transfer from the first whistle to possibly the last.

At 18 years old, to spend that amount of money implies you’ve got a special talent on your hands. Arsenal are known to dance around asking prices and try their hand at negotiations, but on this occasion it was stump up the money or watch the defender head elsewhere across Europe.

Such was the excitement around his acquisition that fans allowed themselves to get almost too attached. While he went back on loan to Saint Etienne for the season, him being a boyhood Arsenal fan and even watching on from the away stand at Vicarage Road helped endear him to the public.

Perhaps also that the Gunners had spent heavily on centre-backs during the Emirates era that turned out to be mostly awful made the big-money signing of such a young man become seen as a progressive step towards a cemented Arsenal defender for years to come.

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Arsenal: 3 William Saliba options amid new developments on his future in the summer transfer window with Gunners open to sale

He had been playing in France and the plaudits he’d earned from everyone who watched him contributed to the fandom, and maybe even the discontent around Mikel Arteta’s job meant that any stick that could be found to beat him with was grasped onto with both hands.

There are numerous reasons as to why it’s come to this.

However, none of them absolve Arsenal of failing on countless occasions to make right of this deal. Sure, he wasn’t Arteta’s signing and any manager is in his right to feel one player isn’t up to his standards or nor do they suit his style of play, but as a club that parts with £27m on someone, as the coach it becomes his remit to make sure that investment is made the most of. Someone needs to say: ‘hey, Mikel, let’s try and make this work’.

At least try and extract some value and, who knows, maybe you’ll find the player is a darn sight better than you envisaged. Instead, loans away as well as poor man-management have resulted in two years of wasted Gunners opportunities, to the point where the latest developments are that Saliba is considering his future with Arsenal open to a sale.

Coming from a reliable source, this news has to be taken seriously. Thus, here we are. A summer of uncertainty has left Saliba and Arsenal with three options to take moving forward.

1. Loan William Saliba Out

Among the options mentioned in Saliba leaving Arsenal on loan. Again.

There were rumours not too long ago of Newcastle eyeing a double swoop for Joe Willock and then Saliba on loan, which were rightly laughed off – it goes to show that no matter how ridiculous one may think some speculation may be, it can never be totally disregarded.

Of course, Newcastle aren’t the only ones. Numerous Ligue 1 sides have shown their hand, including Marseille, Lille, Nice, Rennes and Lyon, while Bayer Leverkusen have also expressed interest, as have Southampton.

Plenty of suitors.

It’s been said that any loan move is highly likely to include an obligation to buy, which is frankly the worst possible outcome of all. For Saliba, he wants his future set in stone and while such a deal is in essence a determination of his future, he’d surely want his hands clean of the situation and his new home agreed upon sooner rather than later.

In Arsenal’s case, it does little for them. Unless the deal is a simple loan move then there is no upside, and even then the player who returns from said move will not feel overly welcome and ready to re-integrate, not least if rumoured signing Ben White has had 12 months to fully cement his place.

If Saliba were to go to Newcastle or Southampton for a season-long loan, then there can be some benefit: Arteta’s lack of trust in the 20-year-old stems from his age, as well as his lack of English experience. If he were to continue on the trajectory he currently is then maybe at last the manager may be swayed to hand him the chance he seeks.

Whatever warm feelings he may have had for Arsenal by that point could well have gone cold by then, however.