Arsenal told William Saliba could leave in stark warning over summer transfers

Ian Wright has warned Arsenal they have to get their summer recruitment right or William Saliba could look to depart the club.

Saliba has become a key man for the Gunners and developed into one of the Premier League's best defenders. But his contract has only two more years to run, sparking concern over his future.

The Frenchman has been part of squads which have twice finished as runners-up in the top-flight and are on course to miss out on the title again this year. Despite fighting at the top of the league, Arsenal have also failed to win a major trophy since 2020.

Their hopes of ending that drought this season suffered a serious blow with the injury to Kai Havertz, after the club opted against signing a new striker in the January transfer window. And Wright believes that lack of action makes the summer crucial as Arsenal look to convince Saliba to stay.

"When you’re talking about renewals with certain players… Saka, Gabriel, Saliba… the way they’re moving now, I bet those renewals are all going to be slow. We’re going to have a situation maybe like Liverpool with Trent, Salah and Virgil," he told the Wrighty's House podcast.

"If I’m one of these players… and their teams are going to be saying, 'Let’s wait and see, we’ve got two years left so let’s wait and see who they get in the summer! I know the manager has signed again but let’s wait and see!'.

"If they’re not going to get the kind of players that take us to the next step… look at Saliba. Real Madrid would take him tomorrow. Why not wait and see what’s going on in the summer to see the kind of players and calibre of player we’re signing?

"This is what the people upstairs need to be careful of and I’m sure Mikel will have told them that because he’s probably got the same kind of ambition: if you’re not going to give me the kind of players I need, I’m not going to be able to keep the players I’ve got here.

"We haven’t even got into that conversation yet about these players. This summer and who comes is f***ing vitally important to these players. There’s a lot going on right now that needs to be unpacked by these people upstairs and they better get it right. They better get it right."

Wright was left flabbergasted at the Gunners' lack of action in the January window. And he warned that those decisions are now coming back to bite them as injuries hit Mikel Arteta's squad.

"What really worries me is as the injuries are starting to happen… Saka injury, Jesus injury, we’ve had [Martin] Odegaard injured. Everybody has been injured at some stage that we really needed," he added.

"I’m just thinking to myself that when the injuries started to happen, we didn’t do any great business in the summer, we didn’t do any business in January. Are the people upstairs thinking, 'Let’s not go hard now and wait for the summer'?

"Have they accepted that we’re not going to win this league? Because I can’t sit here and think that Mikel is happy right now. He cannot be. How can we not make any signings in January? No striker that we’ve needed. I can’t comprehend it."

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