William Saliba will return to Arsenal this summer where a decision will be made about integrating him into the first team, according to Gunners boss Mikel Arteta.
The 20-year-old is currently on loan at Nice where he has continued to impress with his performances at the heart of defence, being named as Player of the Month for January just a few weeks after joining.
When asked by football.london in December when we can expect to see Saliba feature in the first team, Arteta admitted that the defender had made "massive improvements".
Signed for £28million, Saliba is a confident ball playing centre back who has spent his youth switching between playing as an attacking midfielder and defender.
"You will see in the summer, the possible replacement," said Arteta.
"William is our player for sure and that's the decision we're going to be taking soon.
"When we finish the season we will sit down and discuss the roles of every member in our squad and how they can fulfil that role.
"He's our player so he'll be back here for sure. After that, we will make a decision based on an agreement of the role each player is going to have in our squad."
Arteta revealed that he has regrets over the way Saliba's development was handled earlier in the season, after the Frenchman was forced to play in the Under-23s when a summer loan move to former club Saint-Etienne fell through late on.
"We had eight central defenders which is unheard of, but we didn't find the right moment or the right club or the right agreement to do that.
"In my opinion we could have used those four or five months in a better way. We tried to maximise that when we tried to keep him here until December. Now he's had a run of games that he needed after the difficult year that he had the previous season.
"We still have great people doing that. Ben Knapper [Loans Manager] is always in contact with him, he's the one creating every assessment. As coaching staff we are obviously following his progression, watching his games and in contact with him.
Saliba, a boyhood Arsenal fan, picked the club of his dreams over the likes of Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham and Everton when he joined the Gunners in 2019.
