William Saliba not ready to return to Arsenal to ‘sit on the bench’ as French defender mulls future

William Saliba not ready to return to Arsenal to ‘sit on the bench’ as French defender mulls future after excelling on loan spell at Marseille

• Arsenal defender William Saliba has been thriving on loan with Marseille 
• The Frenchman is not ready to settle for a place on Arsenal’s bench next term
• ‘He doesn’t want to come to Arsenal and sit on the bench,’ said his fitness coach
• ‘Next season he will make a solid case for himself,’ added Nicolas St-Maurice

By Richard Martin For Mailonline

Arsenal defender William Saliba is making progress on loan at Marseille but the defender is only going to return to the Gunners on the condition he plays regular football. 

The French defender signed for Arsenal from St Etienne for £27million in 2019 but is still yet to play a minute of Premier League football.

He returned immediately on loan to St Etienne but the coronavirus pandemic stunted his development as the French season was halted in March and unlike most other top European leagues did not resume, meaning the player played only 12 Ligue 1 games.

Arsenal’s William Saliba has excelled this season while out on loan with Ligue 1 side Marseille

The Frenchman joined Arsenal in 2019 for £27million but hasn’t played any first team games

He spent the first half of last season back with Arsenal but was never given a chance by coach Mikel Arteta in the first team and instead spent his days with the under-23 side before returning to France for a loan spell with Nice.

He made 20 league starts for Nice and has been spending this season on loan with Marseille, where has begun to thrive.

Saliba has played 90 minutes in all seven of Marseille’s Ligue 1 games as Jorge Sampaoli’s side have made a commanding start to the campaign, currently sitting third in the standings.

Sampaoli has been singing the 20-year-old’s praises, saying earlier this month that Saliba was ‘a future great of French football’ and lauding his skills at marking forwards as well as his qualities in bringing the ball out from the back and starting moves.

But Arsenal fans should not expect the player to come straight back to the Emirates Stadium next season and hope to play a few games here and there.    

Marseille coach Jorge Sampaoli has praised Saliba’s ability to start attacks from the back

Saliba has helped Marseille rise to third in Ligue 1 after a strong start to the season

‘He does not want to come to Arsenal and sit on the bench, that’s not his mentality, he wants to be playing for Arsenal,’ the player’s personal fitness coach Nicolas St-Maurice told Football London. 

‘William is humble and smart. Arsenal fans are annoyed right now because he’s not at the club and he’s doing really well in Marseille but I think last season he missed some games on top of COVID. ‘ 

Saliba did some specialised coaching with Saliba in Dubai to improve his physical attributes and said he saw similar traits in him as in Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk.

‘He’s a very nice guy, very hard working,’ St-Maurice added. 

‘We worked on a number of things such as speed, power, you know he’s a big guy also and he’s strong. 

‘When you’re so young and you’re big and strong you aren’t as quick as the smaller guys. 

We worked a bit on that and he did really well. When I first saw him I thought of Van Dijk because of his positions of plays and he has the right potential to make it far.   

‘Next season he will make a solid case for himself.’ 

:

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk