Determined William Saliba ‘had no other choice’ over Arsenal future this summer
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed that William Saliba ‘had no other choice’ other than stay at the club.
The young defender spent three loan spells in France since joining from Saint Etienne for a reported £30million in 2019. In Ligue 1 with Marseille last season, he enjoyed an excellent spell – with some believing that this could lead him to join the side permanently.
But the 21-year-old has since returned to north London and enjoyed an Arsenal debut last week as the Gunners defeated Crystal Palace 2-0 in their Premier League opener at Selhurst Park.
READ MORE: William Saliba should force Bukayo Saka into new position says Paul Merson
His performance received rave reviews, with many picking him out as one of the best players of the opening weekend.
And Arteta has commented about the decision to keep the defender at the Emirates. He said via CBS Sports: “The reality is he was very convinced and determined to come here.
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"He had no other choice. He never suggested anything else. From the first conversations that we had with him, you could see that he only had one intention – to come here and start to play football matches for Arsenal.”
The Spanish boss also stressed that the centre-back is still very young and won’t have a seamless campaign.
“Mistakes are a part of football at 21 and 35, they’re going to happen. The mistakes that we want to happen are, as much as possible, on the training pitch. And if they’re going to happen on the pitch, that they don’t cost you goals. That’s the objective. Inevitably things will happen.
“I always say, especially with young players and the development portfolio that we have in our squad, you have to pay a bill. That bill is that at some stage they’re going to make mistakes, they’re going to experience things for the first time, and they have to go through that process.”
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