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William Saliba will join Nice on loan for the remainder of this season in a move Arsenal hope will boost the £ 27m signing career.
Nice which currently sits 12th in Ligue 1, he will cover the central defender’s salary and is not required to pay a loan fee. There is currently no provision for a permanent move, and Arsenal are still determined that the 19-year-old has a future in North London.
It has been a frustrating mid-season for Saliba, who has been restricted to under-23 football after failing to be named to Mikel Arteta’s Premier League or Europa League. Arsenal had not secured a loan for him in September, although there were plenty of suitors, and they will look forward to seeing him develop with a view to competing for first-team football next season.
There were high hopes that Saliba would have a quick impact after returning from a 2019-20 season on loan at Saint-Étienne, from whom he joined Arsenal in July 2019. Actually, he passed a part of that spell with injury and was further delayed by a family duel while looking to settle at Arsenal.
Another temporary move to Ligue 1 is seen as the right move for a player Arsenal manager Edu said last month has a “good future”, especially considering that Arsenal are packed with center-backs. Arteta recently praised Saliba’s “great improvement”, saying in October that he felt “really bad” about his lack of participation in the first team at a time when the club had no fit defenders.
Saliba will be the second Arsenal player to be loaned out in the transfer window, following the signing of Sead Kolasinac to Schalke. More expenses are expected, as Arteta seeks to slim down a team whose size, he admits, is “unsustainable.”
