Raul Sanllehi has been proven right about William Saliba transfer decision at Arsenal

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Arsenal have come under fire for their decision to loan out William Saliba to Saint-Etienne this season, but history proves the Gunners will eventually be justified

Arsenal head of football Raul Sanllehi with technical director Edu

Arsenal legend Martin Keown caused quite the stir over the weekend when he claimed his former side made a mistake with William Saliba.

After sealing a £27m transfer last summer, the young defender was immediately loaned back to Saint-Etienne to continue his development this season.

The reason for this decision was explained by Gunners head of football, Raul Sanllehi, earlier in the season.

Saliba was different, part of the deal is for him to be on loan for one year with his club,” he said, as reported  "We are pleased about that because the level of intensity and the level of demand in the Premier League is very strong.

"He’s probably too young for that yet, as I said, we need to protect our young talent. We think it will be good for him to be in a less demanding league to continue his formative period, so we’ll have a top defender for a decade.

"He saw for his career path, the perfect solution for him."

However, after watching Arsenal's defensive frailties be exposed time and time again this season, Keown expressed his belief that loaning out Saliba wasn't the best idea.

"There’s an awful lot of work to be done in there [defence]," he told talkSPORT. "There was the defender from Saint-Etienne William Saliba who they paid £27million for but was loaned back again.

"I couldn’t quite work that out because now I’m being told he’s world-class.

"Never mind if he's world-class, if he was Premier League class it would have been good enough because that was an area of concern."

Signing players for the future and loaning them back is a tried and tested formula for many Premier League clubs.

Kurt Zouma and Dele Alli are just two examples that back Sanllehi's decision to take this route with Saliba as it bodes well for the defender to develop into a key player for Arsenal in years to come.

Arsenal unveil new signing William Saliba at London Colney (Image: Alan Walter - Arsenal FC/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

Interestingly, Saliba could follow a similar path to Zouma as both have come through the ranks at Saint-Etienne and earned big moves to a London club at a very young age.

In Zouma's case, he signed for Chelsea in January 2014 having already played well over 50 first-team games for Saint-Etienne and after finishing the 2013/14 Ligue 1 season, he was fast-tracked into the Blues first-team by Jose Mourinho.

A serious knee injury has delayed his development but after loan spells at Stoke City and Everton, he's once again a regular for Chelsea - this time under Frank Lampard

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