Arsenal defender William Saliba has a huge decision to make on his future this summer.
He has been with the Gunners since leaving Saint-Etienne in 2019 and, still only 24 years old, has almost his whole career ahead of him.
Yet he has quickly risen to become one of the top defenders in the Premier League, and that’s attracted top-level attention from Europe.
Arsenal putting up William Saliba fight amid Real Madrid interest
It was revealed by L’Equipe earlier this summer that Saliba had been made Real Madrid’s priority target and “concrete” talks had taken place.
A fee of £85m was mooted, and that doesn’t seem to have deterred Los Blancos, despite already splashing £50m on former Bournemouth man Dean Huijsen.
However, Arsenal seem just as determined to keep Saliba in their backline and, according to French outlet le10sport, have tabled a “very substantial offer” to their centre-back to extend his time in north London.
His current deal with the Gunners runs until 2027, meaning his value will likely begin to fall after this window as his contract runs down.
The deal is reportedly big enough to confirm that Arsenal see Saliba – ranked at no.2 in FourFourTwo's list of the best centre-backs in the world right now – as their main man moving forward, reinforcing their desire to build their future around him.
But the same outlet states that Saliba has not yet made up his mind, and is tempted by the opportunity to play for Los Blancos.
In FourFourTwo’s opinion, Saliba needs to think very carefully before gambling on the Madrid project under Xabi Alonso.
As previously mentioned, they have only just signed Huijsen, who joins competition with the likes of Raul Asencio, Eder Militao, Antonio Rudiger and David Alaba for minutes in Alonso’s backline.
At Arsenal, a huge club fighting at the summit of the game’s biggest competitions, he is already the main man; at Madrid, he will go back to fighting for his place on a weekly basis.
Saliba is valued at €80m, according to Transfermarkt.
