William Saliba situation shows the difficulty of Mikel Arteta's Arsenal rebuild

William Saliba holds a strange status among Arsenal fans. He has never played for the club's first team - and yet is still positioned with some as The Great Hope.

Saliba was signed from Saint-Etienne in a £27million deal in the summer of 2019, but has spent the following few years on loan in his native France - first with Saint-Etienne, then Nice and now with Marseille.

He is a 20-year-old centre-back of great promise. It's just he has never shown that promise in an Arsenal shirt.

The consequence of that distance is mystique. Fans can of course watch Marseille's Ligue 1 matches to draw their own conclusions, but generally their opinions are moulded by the online social media hype machine.

Little clips of a last-ditch tackle. Impressive statistics from a particular game. Every now and then some quotes about his progress.

William Saliba has been impressing for Marseille this season ( Image:

Giuseppe Maffia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

They all help build up an opinion. And there is no doubt that Saliba's performances are worthy of some attention right now.

Although Arsenal have turned things around following their poor start to the season and are eight games unbeaten, there is always going to be a yearning for what the team doesn't have.

Yes, Ben White and Gabriel Magalhaes are beginning to develop a partnership. But did you see Saliba's performance against Paris Saint-Germain last week - one he described post-match as "the best match of my career"?

Mikel Arteta did. And Arsenal sporting director Edu was there in the flesh, as Arteta revealed in his press conference on Friday ahead of the trip to Leicester.

So, given his efforts in keeping Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar quiet in a 0-0 draw, does Arsenal's manager think they made the right decision in loaning Saliba out once again?

"Everything is linked," he explained. "The amount of centre backs that we had in the team, the issues that we had in the past because of the numbers that we had and the imbalance that we had in that position and because of William's decision in his career right now to make the minutes that he's making and the progress that he's making. We believe it was the right thing to do."

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William Saliba played the best game of his career against PSG on Sunday ( Image:

Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)

That could well be the case. But the decision is indicative of how difficult a rebuilding job is.

Arsenal took the decision to spend £50m on White and because of that they had to loan out their promising - and expensive - youngster yet again.

The dream scenario is that Arsenal's defence finds its feet, Saliba has a brilliant campaign at Marseille and then returns to the Gunners next summer a ready-made star. Arteta certainly hopes that will be the case.

"That's a decision that we will make next summer," he said. "He's our player and naturally that will happen. We'll have to sit down and decide what the best next step is."

Arsenal have reportedly ruled out the prospect of Saliba returning to the Emirates in January, which is fair enough. Saliba wants to play and he is doing that with Marseille, having started all-but-one of their Ligue 1 matches this season.

But there is the possibility that giving Saliba a chance to play and develop his game turns into something less productive. There is a chance Saliba gets a taste of first team football and doesn't want to fight for his place at Arsenal.

Marseille do not have the option in their loan agreement to sign Saliba in the summer, but others may want to.

The Sun claims that the centre-back is reluctant to return to north London, showing the double-edged sword of Arsenal's approach.

It is unlikely Arteta is losing sleep over the situation, with a trip to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester on Saturday his focus.

But each game Saliba plays makes it more likely that the young French defender will not be a part of Arteta's ongoing efforts to rebuild at Arsenal.