Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has admitted he is “fed up” with young defender William Saliba’s situation at the club, with the 19-year-old Frenchman still waiting to make his debut for Arsenal more than a year after signing for £27 million.
So much was expected of the young defender even though he was initially sent out on loan to Saint-Etienne, the club he was bought from in July 2019.
For some reason Arteta has not given him a chance to make a start in the first team, choosing instead to play him in the Under-23 squad.
Arteta has now spoken out saying “I’m fed up with the situation because, as you could see, we tried to find a way in the last few days to give him some football.
“I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him and send him on loan to Saint-Etienne. For many reasons, that didn’t happen – he didn’t have that transition year and he needs to go through that.
“At the moment, with the amount of central defenders we have in the team, we had to leave him out of the squad, which is painful. Now we have some injuries and we could have used him but this is part of the profession.”
Arteta believes a loan move in January could be a possibility for Saliba, saying: “We certainly tried in the last few days of the transfer window to find the right club but we could not.
“We will review the situation in the next few weeks and sit down with him and see what is the best thing to do. But it will depend on him and other players’ situations as well.”