William Saliba signed a new contract with Arsenal earlier this week, but there’s been some dispute over the exact details of the deal.
It was obviously a big boost to everyone at Arsenal to see William Saliba putting pen to paper on a new contract with the club this week, but there was some confusion over exactly how long he’d signed for.
Despite some reports that the centre-back would have a four-year deal with an option to extend, The Athletic’s David Ornstein reports that no such option exists.
Saliba has simply signed a contract lasting until 2027, though the good news is that it doesn’t contain a release clause.
As for how much he’ll earn, Ornstein confirms that Saliba will bring in around £10m per year, which would put him a little under the £200,000-a-week mark.
It’s a big deal and a clear show of the faith Arsenal have in Saliba, though the four-year nature of the contract does open up the possibility of further negotiations in a couple of seasons.
That’s not necessarily the worst thing. For Arsenal to keep their best players around, they’re under pressure to keep being competitive, to keep producing strong teams and challenging at the top of the table.
That’s what we all want anyway. As long as it happens, you’d think Saliba would want to stick around until 2027 and beyond.
The centre-back missed out on the end of the 2022/23 campaign with an injury, and the back issue also saw him missing international duty with France in June.
As a result, Saliba hasn’t played a game since mid-March, but he should have the entirety of pre-season to get up to speed again.
The Arsenal squad will be delighted to have him back, with Gabriel Jesus recently pointing to Saliba’s injury as the turning point in the season.
“When I got injured, Eddie replaced me very well. Then we signed Leo (Trossard). We kept the pace. But when Saliba got injured, it was complicated,” Jesus admitted.
“The other defenders are good, but we were playing in a certain way. Look at the stats, we concede a lot less with him.
“When he plays, we concede few goals, when he doesn’t play, the number increases.”