William Saliba’s future is unknown, but he isn’t sweating about it – he chose to live in the present. It proved to be the right approach so far. The Arsenal’s on-loan defender joined Olympique de Marseille in his native France for the season and has played well enough to earn a call-up from the reigning world champions. Not bad, right?Weah’s effect: Wenger’s lie that fooled Klinsmann to join MonacoSpeaking to L’Equipe, the 21-year-old centre-back said that he’s enjoying playing for Les Marseilles and that he wouldn’t mind staying at Stade Velodrome beyond this season.”This club and this public are magnificent so I want to make the most of it by the end of the season as if I was never going to come back. There are two months left, I want to savour every moment, especially at home. We’ll see what happens later. If I do come back, it will be with great, great pleasure.”Saliba revealed that the Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta is watching his every game and keeps in touch with the promising defender. However, none of that will matter unless the Frenchman finally gets his chance to play for the first team at Emirates.”They are often in contact with my agent Djibril Niang. They send me messages. They watch my matches. They tell me that we have to continue like this. I haven’t played much with the Gunners. The coach Mikel Arteta made his choices, that’s life. I left on loan, I started playing regularly and, thanks to my performances, I became a France international.”Sunday, 16.00: (3.60) Saint-Etienne (3.10) Olympique Marseille (2.20)Arteta’s decision to leave Saliba out of the squad baffled many Gunners’ fans – especially after their club splashed a lot of money to sign him.”What happened to me made me stronger mentally. Just because you cost $33 million, it doesn’t mean that you’ll play. It doesn’t work that way. I take it positively. Even if there are times when you ask yourself questions. For six months, I saw that I was the only one in the group not to play. That hurt.”Saliba: “I’m sure I can’t just be on the bench at Arsenal and be happy. I want to play as a starter. Afterwards, if I enter into the rotation as a substitute, it’s not like staying with the Under-23s and never being in the squad.” 🇫🇷 #AFC pic.twitter.com/hsNDb4BHqd— Chris Wheatley (@ChrisWheatley_) April 1, 2022 So, will we ever see this guy playing for the North London team? Does he even see himself returning to Emirates?”Of course, but I can’t just be on the bench at Arsenal and be happy. I want to be a starter. It’s fine if the team is rotated and sometimes I’m on the bench. But I don’t want to go there and play for the Under-23s and never be in the first-team squad.”For a couple of months, Saliba will be relatively carefree in the shirt of Olympique de Marseille. And then, the time to ask some questions will come again.
