William Saliba has plenty of options on the table, but one move he won’t be making is to Rennes, after they messed him around last summer.

Ouest-France (via GFFN) report that William Saliba has rejected the possibility of a loan to Rennes this summer, as he still feels wronged by their treatment of him in the 2020 window.

Rennes sporting director Florian Maurice contacted Arsenal over a move, but they couldn’t afford a permanent move for Saliba and he didn’t want a loan.

According to the report, Saliba had an agreement to join Rennes on a season-long loan last summer. He was ready to make the move, but they stalled and stalled while they pushed forward with a move for Daniele Rugani instead.

After waiting until the very end of the window, Saliba was left frustrated as Rennes never closed the deal. Then came the fiasco with Saint-Etienne, as administrative errors prevented Arsenal from loaning Saliba there either.

Whilst this doesn’t totally absolve Arsenal of blame, it does go a long way to explaining why the club failed to send Saliba on loan. Until now, the assumption was that they’d just dragged out the Saint-Etienne negotiations for too long.

Instead, it appears the Saint-Etienne move was a last-minute decision after Rennes had been screwing Saliba around for a while. A loan still should have been completed, but obviously there’s more room for error when you have to do a deal so late.

For the time being, Saliba’s future is up in the air again after his call-up for the Olympics. Arsenal were planning to give him a chance in pre-season, but they’re now not going to get that opportunity.

The assumption now is that he’ll go on another loan. But not to Rennes.