Mikel Arteta says William Saliba has been clear about his desire to remain at Arsenal and that the club expects a new contract announcement soon. Arteta praised Saliba\u2019s conduct while transfer interest from Real Madrid circulated and said the defender held the same position in private discussions as he had in public.<\/p>\n
Saliba had publicly expressed his desire to stay with Arsenal beyond the terms of his current deal, and Arteta admitted the 24-year-old had always taken the same stance behind the scenes during their private talks about Madrid \u2019s interest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was quite direct with him, because when you hear that noise\u2014you can understand, players have feelings,\u201d he told a press conference. \u201cAt the end, players have feelings, players have been educated in their families, maybe they are dreaming about something one day, and that\u2019s a really natural thing to have.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I sat down with William, I asked him the question. He said, \u2018No, I want to stay here, I want to play for you and I\u2019m very happy\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked whether those conversations revolved around Madrid specifically, Arteta added: \u201cIn general, I didn\u2019t want to be specific, but it was obvious with the amount of noise there was around certain clubs. We didn\u2019t have to name many teams, but there are not that many that can come and get Willy out from us and him being happy to discuss it. He was clear and so transparent and honest from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n
For supporters the immediate task is simply waiting for paperwork. \u201cHopefully it will be everyone in the world [confirming the new contract has been signed], Arsenal included, very soon,\u201d Arteta beamed. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m hoping, but let\u2019s leave the club to announce that when it\u2019s all done.<\/p>\n
Arteta underlined Saliba\u2019s importance to the team\u2019s stability and recent defensive record. \u201cHe\u2019s been instrumental in everything we\u2019ve done these last few years. It\u2019s been great to see a lot of players willing to commit to the club. That means they are happy, they feel values and they see that it is the best opportunity for them to continue their careers and fulfil the ambition of the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery impressive, what he\u2019s done at his age. His consistency, the way he\u2019s progressed and matured as a person, he\u2019s grown year after year. I think he\u2019s built a partnership with Gabi [Magalh\u00e3es] especially, but with the back line and the keeper that has given the best defensive record in the last three years, I think. He\u2019s been pivotal to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reflecting on their early relationship, Arteta recalled a period of differing expectations that eventually resolved. \u201cThe way we started our relationship, when probably we had different expectations or ideas of how we started to create the best pathway for him to fulfil his potential, at some point, we got to the same conclusion, we decided to work together and, from there, everything started to flourish,\u201d Arteta reflected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was clear the potential was there, it was about timing and, in my opinion, creating the right environment for him to deliver what he could do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta says Saliba wants to stay and a new Arsenal contract should be announced very soon. confirmed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3109,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,172],"tags":[1032,1077,986],"class_list":["post-3110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-contract-disputes","tag-contract-renewal","tag-contract-standoff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3110\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}