William Saliba Prepared for €100k-a-month Pay Cut to Force January Move
Since signing for Arsenal in the summer of 2019, William Saliba’s stint in north London has not worked out as he would have liked.
Spending the 2019/20 season back on loan at former club Saint-Etienne, Saliba has found his Arsenal career hampered upon his return by a complete lack of first team opportunities.
The intention of his loan return to his former club would have been to offer the 19-year-old a chance to improve his physicality and skills with a club with which he was both familiar and would facilitate bountiful first team opportunities.
However, that well-laid plan ended up going awry. As noted by Sport Witness, he was limited to just 12 senior appearances in France as a consequence of a hamstring injury which was followed quickly by a foot fracture. Just as Saliba looked to be steadily bouncing back, the Ligue 1 season was curtailed in early spring.
Subsequently, Saliba must have failed to impress the Arsenal coaching setup, with the French centre-back failing to make the Gunners’ Europa League or Premier League squads. After failing to be registered formally in those squads, he has even found game-time restricted outside of senior football. He has been limited to just a handful of Premier League 2 development games and EFL Trophy clashes this season.
Foot-sur7 claimed [via Sport Witness] that Saliba is willing to forego a significant portion of his wages in order to force a loan move in January, when the winter transfer window opens. A return to Saint-Etienne has been deemed most likely by French reports, although it is believed that a wage cut would see him lose ‘as much as €100k a month’, with Saint-Etienne reportedly unable to facilitate a big wage.
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A wage cut for the youngster may well be the only way forward for all parties.
Saliba is evidently a disgruntled, unused asset and that is to the detriment of all concerned. A loan switch may be the most viable route for him to get his development back to where it needs to be.