Spanish giants Real Madrid have been linked to a live stream of Arsenal’s French defender William Saliba, TeamTalk reports.
Questions have been repeatedly raised after Arsenal took three years to hand William Saliba his senior debut for the club.
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The French centre-back was originally brought to north London in the summer of 2019. A package worth around £27m was agreed with Saint-Etienne – a considerable fee for a teenager.
However, the Gunners decided to loan Saliba out to Ligue 1 on three separate occasions rather than quickly incorporating the defender into their first-team plans.
Arsenal’s cautious approach has since proven to be a masterstroke, with Saliba being named Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year during his loan spell at Marseille in the 2021/22 campaign.
His exploits that season led Arsenal to determine that he was finally ready to cement his place in Mikel Arteta’s starting XI for the 2022/23 campaign and beyond.
Saliba has not looked back since and two years later, at just 23, he is widely regarded as one of the best central defenders in world football.
Saliba has formed a solid and durable centre-back partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of Arsenal’s defence, which conceded the fewest goals in the Premier League last season. Their tally of 29 goals conceded was five fewer than eventual champions Manchester City’s 34.
However, Saliba’s remarkable rise has not gone unnoticed at the Bernabéu.
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