According to But Football Club, Saint-Etienne’s move to bring back Arsenal defender William Saliba is now ‘on track’.
It’s claimed that the deal doesn’t look easy, but Saliba’s return to the club now looks to be on the right track ahead of the January transfer window.
Saint-Etienne were pushing for a deal before the October transfer deadline, because Arsenal took too long to send over documentation to finalise the move.
That may have only postponed the move though, as Saint-Etienne now want to resurrect the deal for the winter window and may well succeed.
Saliba, 19, signed for Arsenal back in the summer of 2019 having shown real promise at Saint-Etienne, but he was loaned straight back to the Ligue 1 side.
The defender returned to Arsenal this past summer, but hasn’t made a single Premier League appearance and isn’t even in their Europa League squad.
That means that Saliba is stuck playing Premier League 2 games, and that simply isn’t good enough for his development given that Arsenal see him as a real prospect for the future.
If Mikel Arteta isn’t going to use Saliba, then loaning him out makes perfect sense – and a move back to Saint-Etienne could suit all parties.
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