Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will take a closer look at William Saliba when the first team squad return for pre-season in the summer, football.london understands.
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.
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's is a confident ball playing centre back who has spent his youth switching between playing as an attacking midfielder and defender.
“We’re having meetings very often to assess what they’re doing," said Arteta when asked about the Arsenal players currently out on loan.
“Obviously we’re getting all the information and watching their games because I want to keep a very close eye on what they’re doing.
“We were talking yesterday for example with Ben Knapper, who is our loan manager. He is in charge of monitoring everything we are doing, and we are in contact with the players.
“Let’s see. It’s good news that they are playing and it’s good news that they have the possibility to have a lot of minutes because that’s going to give us a much better perception of where they are and how we can use them.”
Meanwhile, Arsenal's other centre back options include Rob Holding, Pablo Mari and Gabriel Magahales, while David Luiz's contract expires at the end of the season.
Luiz, 33, was handed an extra 12 months on his deal last summer after impressing Gunners boss Mikel Arteta with the impact he had on the younger members of the squad.
But with Saliba and fellow loanee Dinos Mavropanos returning and Calum Chambers also an option at centre back it appears unlikely that the former Chelsea defender's deal will be renewed at this stage.
Arteta's squad planning for next season is in advanced stages with the Gunners targeting a new right-back, left-back and hopeful of completing a permanent deal for on-loan Real Madrid midfielder Martin Odegaard.
