Arsenal defender William Saliba says he is "happy to be part of a team" at Nice and feels he was judged by Gunners boss Mikel Arteta after only "two-and-a-half" games.
The 19-year-old joined the Gunners from Saint Etienne for £27million in the summer of 2019 and was immediately loaned back to the French side for a year.
Saliba was quoted in an interview with L'Equipe on Sunday saying that Arsenal wanted to bring him back to London halfway through his first loan spell at Saint Etienne, but he opted to stay in France.
"There were a lot of factors I think because when they were finishing their league season, I was in quarantine at home, where I could only run one kilometre in my house," he said.
"And then there was this thing about the [Coupe de France] final, we didn't know if I was going to be able to play or not."
Saliba was named as Nice's January Player of the Month and has impressed for the French side following a number of solid performances in defence.
However, in a new interview on RMC's Top of the Foot show, Saliba admitted his frustrations at what he felt was an premature judgement on his footballing abilities during his first few months working with Arteta.
“It is clear that so much has changed in the last year," Saliba told RMC.
"When I saw that the coach changed a lot changed for me too. In this year there has been a lot of change. He judged me on two-and-a-half matches. I would have liked for him to play me more. But he told me I wasn't ready.
"I was waiting for him to give me a chance, but football is like that. When I initially came to Arsenal the league looked very good so I showed up to training and wanted to train on my own to show the coach I was ready.
"I am happy now, I want to play for Nice. The idea when you’re part of a team is a better feeling for me.”
When asked by football.london when we can expect to see Saliba feature in the first team, Arteta admitted in November that the defender has made "massive improvements" in the last few months, although it always remained likely that he would go out on loan.
The French defender, a boyhood Arsenal fan, picked the Gunners over the likes of Atletico Madrid, Manchester United, Tottenham and Everton before joining up with former head coach Unai Emery in the summer of 2019.
