Arsenal to enter William Saliba transfer talks this month with club plotting significant bid
Arsenal will reportedly enter transfer negotiations with Marseille later this month as the Ligue 1 side aim to engineer a permanent deal for William Saliba.
The centre-back has been impressing during a season-long loan at Marseille. He has featured in all but one of their league matches so far, helping the French outfit to reach third place.
20-year-old Saliba is also gaining experience in the Europa League. He made six appearances in the competition, although Marseille were unable to get out of Group E. They will now aim to win the inaugural Europa Conference League.
Saliba is clearly enjoying life back in France, and Marseille are benefitting from having him in their ranks.
The starlet joined Arsenal from Saint-Etienne in July 2019 but is yet to even make his senior debut for the Gunners.
According to recent reports, Mikel Arteta’s side view Saliba as a star of the future and want to finalise a new contract with him.
That decision came amid interest from three European teams – Inter, Milan and Sevilla.
William Saliba transfer talks set
Sport Witness provide an update on Saliba’s situation, while citing French newspaper L’Equipe. They claim Marseille are desperate to pluck Saliba from Arsenal’s squad on a permanent basis.
The two clubs will begin transfer talks at some point in March. But given Arsenal’s stance over Saliba, they will only sell for a big fee.
Marseille would have to spend upwards of €30million (£25m) to land the France U21 international this summer. However, they like him so much that his price tag could be met.
During an interview with Eurosport in December, William Saliba spoke about his struggles when moving to Arsenal. “There are hard times,” he admitted. “I hadn’t played a game for six months.
“You have to fight in a career. We must take that as a lesson to go further.
“It gave me a little slap to say: ‘You are nobody!’ You can be bought for 30 million euros, arrive in a club and we put you aside.
“I took this experience by being positive – I feed on it. I know what it’s like not to play for six months. Today, I want to play every game. It puts the ideas back in place.”
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Roy Keane in rare praise for Arsenal
Arsenal look the team to catch in the race for the top four after a 3-2 win at Watford – and their huge improvement has seen pundit Roy Keane complete a remarkable U-turn.
Their run of form is perhaps comes as a surprise to plenty. Arsenal were accused of having a “softness” about them before. And the main man of brandishing that tag, Keane, has now been forced into an unprecedented U-turn.
He now rates Arteta’s side and has commended both their performances and resilience.
“It’s been an amazing turnaround considering where they were at the start of the season,” Keane told Sky Sports, as cited by the Daily Mirror.
“Now they’re probably favourites to finish in the top four.
“We’ve always questioned whether there’s a bit of softness to them. But they’re in a good moment now and they’ve always had that quality.
“Against Wolves they found a way to win the football match, they kept going and grabbed a late goal. That’s the key to success.
“You can have your off days, but you find a way to win and it was a huge three points for them.”
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