William Saliba has admitted that Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta told him he wasn’t ready for first team football, before the club decided to loan him to Nice.
The centre-back joined the French side on loan for the remainder of the season, after failing to make a single Premier League appearance for the Gunners.
Arteta has claimed that he was not ready for first-team football, but Saliba has argued that he should have been given a chance to prove himself.
“The coach immediately told me that I was not ready. I would have at least liked to have had a chance to rediscover my rhythm,” he told the media on Friday.
“My first six months were difficult, because I was coming from six months where I wasn’t able to train because I was at home and couldn’t train outside, couldn’t play.
“I arrived there as they were finishing the league season, so I was training alone. As soon as they came back from holidays, we quickly had the first friendly matches where I lacked rhythm and was a bit insufficient physically.”