Reports are emerging that suggest Arsenal have made a €30 million bid for AS Saint-Etienne defender William Saliba, a player they've been linked with for a number of weeks.
The 18-year-old is a promising young defender, who broke into the Ligue 1 side's first team last season and produced some encouraging performances, which have seen him linked with some of Europe's top clubs.
With Laurent Koscienly's ongoing injury issues and concerns over the performances of Shkodran Mustafi, the Gunners could do with strengthening their options at the heat of defence.
But, just how good is Saliba?
And, what is his potential of the €30 million man?
We used Football Manager 2019 to find out.
William Saliba - AS Saint-Etienne
Current Ability: 86/200
Potential Ability: -75 (150/200)
Positions: CB
According to Football Manager 2019, Saliba is some way off having the ability of a first team regular for Arsenal.
Saliba's current ability on FM is 86 out of 200, to put that into perspective, that is lower than Gunners youngster Zech Medley (95).
However, the Frenchman's current ability is set at -75, this means that Saliba could potentially reach a current ability of 150 out of 200, which is impressive.
To put that figure into context, that would make him almost as good as Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny (156), so that would make him one of the best defenders in the Premier League.
That are a few caveats to these figures, as the Football Manager 2019 database was last updated at the start of the year, so these figures are likely to be updated when the next iteration of the game is released.
Also, some of Saliba's attributes are randomly generated, as he's only just broke into the first team at AS Saint-Etienne, so there hasn't been enough time to rate his attributes accurately.
Attributes like his marking, tackling and anticipation are set as 0, so they randomise at the start of every new game, but his physical attributes, including acceleration, pace and strength have been inputted.
Overall, Football Manager 2019 suggests that Saliba is a very promising young defender with great potential.
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