ARSENAL star William Saliba reportedly has no chance of breaking into Mikel Arteta’s first-team plans this season.
Eurosport claim the Frenchman could now be sent out on loan to further develop his game.
William Saliba will not be given a chance to impress at Arsenal this seasonCredit: Getty Images – Getty
The report adds that it was believed the 19-year-old would be pushing for a place at the Emirates this season.
Yet Arsenal boss Arteta feels Saliba still needs a ‘transition year’ to get him to the required level to play in the Premier League.
The Frenchman moved to Arsenal in the summer of 2019 for £27million, before being loaned back to Saint-Etienne.
⚽ Read our Arsenal live blog for the latest news from The Emirates
Saliba was supposed to get regular game time back in his homeland at an important stage of his development.
But a succession of injuries, coupled with the suspension of the Ligue 1 season in March, limited the talented defender to just 15 appearances.
And Saliba has since failed to feature for Arsenal in the Prem this term, while he was also left out of Arteta’s 25-man squad for the Europa League.
He was an unused substitute in the Community Shield, as well as for the EFL Cup third round victory over Leicester.
Otherwise, he has been limited to Under-23s football, playing in five of Arsenal’s PL2 matches.
And he was sent off in the young Gunners’ EFL Trophy defeat to AFC Wimbledon on Tuesday night.
Saliba appears likely to head out on loan in January, with Arteta having admitted that he is ‘fed up’ with the situation regarding his young defender.
Though he did recently offer the centre-back hope of making it at Arsenal in the future when asked when fans could expect to see him play.
Arteta said: “Whenever we have the spaces and we believe that he’s ready to play with us.
“To be fair, he’s made massive improvements in the last few months and it’s been a really tricky situation for him.
“Now we’ve made some steps forwards, he’s working really hard and played for the under-21s again.
“As I mentioned before, we designed a pathway for him and there were a lot of things that happened to him in his personal life and professionally as well.”
William Saliba questions whether he is an Arsenal player after nightmare start at club in awkward chat with Lacazette
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
