Arsenal
Deal agreed: Star heading to London to complete move after Arsenal seal £26.5m deal
William Saliba is due in London to finalise his move to Arsenal after the Gunners agreed a deal worth £27m with Saint-Etienne for his signature.
Managers are working hard trying to strengthen their squads during the summer transfer window so we’ll bring you all the latest news and gossip from around the globe. Here, William Saliba is set to join Arsenal…
William Saliba is due in London to finalise his move to Arsenal after the Gunners agreed a deal worth £26.5m with Saint-Etienne which will see the centre-back head back to France on loan next season, according to Goal.
Saliba came through the Saint-Etienne youth ranks before breaking into the first team with 19 appearances in all competitions last season and he earned a reputation as one of the most highly-rated young defenders in French football.
The 18-year-old produced some excellent performances to help Saint-Etienne finish fourth in the Ligue 1 table with one of the best defensive records in the division while he’s also been capped by France at U21 level.
Saliba’s potential alerted clubs here in the Premier League this summer but Goal claims Arsenal have fought off rival interest from Tottenham and Wolves to snap-up the talented centre-back.
After lengthy negotiations, the report says Arsenal have agreed to pay Saint-Etienne £26.5m for Saliba’s signature while we also caved to their demand to send the defender back on loan for the upcoming campaign.
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Unai Emery was keen to have Saliba available immediately as we desperately need to improve our defence after conceding 70 goals across all competitions last season but Saint-Etienne were adamant they wanted him to remain in France for another year.
Arsenal decided it was better to allow Saliba to develop his game further in Ligue 1 for another 12 months rather than risk missing out on the player altogether so we’ll have to wait until the summer of 2020 before he links up with his new team mates.
Goal says Saliba will now travel to London to finalise the transfer and sign a long-term contract with Arsenal to become our second signing of the summer following the arrival of Brazilian attacker Gabriel Martinelli.
READ –> Arsenal transfer news
Emery is expected to bring in a number of further signings ahead of the new season and the Saliba deal might not hamper his budget too much as it’s reported Arsenal won’t pay a large sum up front for the defender so his transfer won’t eat away at our summer budget.
