Didier Deschamps dents Arsenal’s William Saliba hopes as PSG and Bayern Munich offer major prize

It would be a struggle to find a player having never made their senior competitive debut for Arsenal talked about as much as William Saliba. The expectation and attention on the 21-year-old are at a generational level.

Never have Arsenal had a player in this age bracket, with such little experience and assurances that has captured the focus of so much of the supporter base. Players like Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez have been obsessed over for different reasons of course but both earned plenty of appearances for the club.

The idea that Saliba might never make that fabled debut for the Gunners appears a thought too painful or ridiculous to consider for some. In fairness, from what has been seen of the player, there are plenty of arguments to support, rightly, that he is good enough to be an Arsenal player.

Yet Saliba himself appears now at peace with what has occurred and is very open to what the future holds. Didier Deschamps has now given him an even greater assurance of his quality and it is this which has turned the tables on his Arsenal future.

A 21-year-old centre-half starting for France but not able to be guaranteed regular starts in the Arsenal first-team opens a door for a potential move. There will be no club unaware of who and how good William Saliba is and can become.

Saliba himself will want guarantees. spoke exclusively to Emmanuel Petit who backed this and said if he were the defender, he too would have expectations that he feels Arsenal cannot provide.

“He is in the first eleven with Marseille, he is playing every single game. He is probably the [most used]. As I said, if you ask him to come back to Arsenal then he will need guarantees,” said Petit.

“If you tell him I want you to come back because of