Arsenal made a mistake with William Saliba last summer.
That's the view of Gunners legend Martin Keown.
The young defender sealed a £27m transfer to Arsenal just under a year ago, but was immediately loaned back to Saint-Etienne to continue his development this season.
Injuries aside, it's been an impressive campaign for Saliba as he helped Saint-Etienne avoid relegation from Ligue 1 as well as playing a big role in them reaching the Coupe de France Final.
Meanwhile, his parent club have looked shaky at the back all season with Sokratis, David Luiz and Shkodran Mustafi all looking vulnerable at some point in time.
As a result, there's excitement building about Saliba's return ahead of next season, but Keown can quite work out why the defender was signed for so much money only to be loaned out.
"There’s an awful lot of work to be done in there [defence]," he told talkSPORT. "There was the defender from Saint-Etienne William Saliba who they paid £27million for but was loaned back again.
"I couldn’t quite work that out because now I’m being told he’s world-class.
"Never mind if he’s world-class, if he was Premier League class it would have been good enough because that was an area of concern."
The reason why Saliba was loaned out was explained by Arsenal head of football, Raul Sanllehi, earlier in the seasonn
"Saliba was different, part of the deal is for him to be on loan for one year with his club,” he said, as reported by talkSPORT. "We are pleased about that because the level of intensity and the level of demand in the Premier League is very strong.
"He’s probably too young for that yet, as I said, we need to protect our young talent. We think it will be good for him to be in a less demanding league to continue his formative period, so we’ll have a top defender for a decade.
"He saw for his career path, the perfect solution for him."
In addition, Keown's former teammate, Ian Wright, backed the decision to loan Saliba back to Saint-Etienne.
"I have to say with Saliba he’s a player that I’m excited about. I didn’t think we’d get him," he said. "With the club’s chasing him and the money they were throwing at him, for us to make that deal happen, that is a player who has been sought after and we’ve got him.
"Anybody at the club who has played a part in that deal has got to take a maximum amount of credit.
"I know he’s going back and I know we definitely need a centre-half, but if we are going to be totally honest with where Arsenal are at the moment, if we can get a centre-half for the future and we have to loan him back and then have to try and fill spaces and get people in we have to do that.
"We cannot compete with Man City and Liverpool in respect of buying the finished article yet. We have to understand that’s where we are and I think that someone like Saliba is the future and we’ve got him."
However, it would appear that Keown doesn't quite agree with this stance given how much the Gunners have struggled in defence this season.
