William Saliba will sign his brand new Arsenal contract today, extending his current deal to 2027 football.london understands. The deal brings an end to one of the club’s longest-running sagas and provides clarity on the dynamic between the Frenchman and manager Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal pushed hard to keep the young defender at the club with lengthy talks eventually finding an agreement between all parties. Saliba sees the club as the right place to continue his journey and has been convinced by Arteta’s project after returning to the Champions League and pushing Manchester City to the latter stages of the season in the title race.
There had been many suggestions that after three loan spells and a period where the then-teenager was playing youth football at Arsenal, that Saliba might look to leave the club. Saliba was outspoken on Arteta’s perception of him when he returned from his time with Saint-Etienne.
“My first six months were difficult because I was coming from six months where I wasn’t able to train because I was at home and couldn’t train outside, couldn’t play,” Saliba said when he was signed for Nice on loan in January of 2021.
“I arrived there as they were finishing the league season, so I was training alone. As soon as they came back from holidays, we quickly had the first friendly matches where I lacked rhythm and was a bit insufficient physically.
“The coach immediately told me that I was not ready. I would have at least liked to have a chance to rediscover my rhythm. But this is football, it’s like that.”
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However, news of the renewal brings a firm close to this angle and now opens up a different chapter. It also completely shuts down any suggestions of mishandling and mistreatment from Arteta whose decision to loan him out in 2021/22 to Marseille proved pivotal to the development which was showcased the following season for Arsenal.
Saliba’s absence at the end of last season was defining for Arteta. Without the depth of Takehiro Tomiyasu who, like Saliba, was injured in the match with Sporting CP costing him the rest of his season, Arsenal lacked the depth to cope without them.
More goals began to be conceded and confidence and form took a massive hit that became too difficult to completely recover from. This summer has seen the club move to sign Jurrien Timber and the club have now total agreement with Ajax with a medical scheduled football.london understands.
This means Arsenal have both renewed a player they believe to be the best young centre-half in the world and brought in another defender in a similar age bracket they rate in a similar regard. Excitement continues to grow at Arsenal and unsurprisingly hopes of another title race have developed alongside that.
