Arsenal defender William Saliba has agreed a move to Nice on loan for the rest of the campaign, according to reports in France.
The 19-year-old star, who was signed in a £27m deal from Saint-Etienne in July 2019, is still waiting to play his first game for Arsenal since moving to the Emirates last summer.
Saliba has only played for Arsenal’s Under-23s but Mikel Arteta has said that the defender needs to go through a ‘transition’ period before he plays regularly for the first team.
Saliba has attracted interest from several teams ahead of the January transfer window, with his former side Saint-Etienne keen on bringing him back.
But according to Nice-Matin, Saliba has now agreed to join Nice on loan for the rest of the season, while the French team have no option to sign permanently.
The report claims that the player is undergoing a medical and signing his contract with the Ligue 1 team on Monday morning. Last month, it was reported that Patrick Vieira was pushing for Nice to sign Saliba as cover for Dante, who is set to miss the rest of the campaign due to a injury.
Nice have since sacked Vieira and appointed Adrian Ursea as head coach for the remainder of the campaign.
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Speaking last month, Arteta said that Saliba, who was left out of Arsenal’s Europa League team, was already showing signs of promise.
‘To be fair, he’s made massive improvements in the last few months and it’s been a really tricky situation for him,’ said Arteta.
‘As I mentioned before, we designed a pathway for him and there were a lot of things that happened to him in his personal life and professionally as well. ‘Now we’ve made some steps forwards, he’s working really hard and played for the Under-21s again.’
