Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit insists he can see two more top Gunners stars leaving if William Saliba is sold to Real Madrid in the near future.
Saliba has proven himself as one of the best centre-backs in world football over the past couple of seasons and has formed a brilliant partnership with Gabriel Magalhaes at the heart of Mikel Arteta’s defence.
His form has seen admiring glances from across Europe with rumours Real Madrid could look to make an offer for him in the summer transfer window.
Arsenal, who overcame Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals earlier this year, are unlikely to want to sell the France international and are set to offer him a new deal.
The Athletic ‘s David Ornstein recently commented that Saliba is ‘known to be happy at Arsenal but will inevitably seek a deal reflecting his status as one of the leading players in his position across world football at the age of just 24’.
And former Arsenal midfielder Petit is worried that Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice could also decide to look for a new club if Saliba’s exit is sanctioned.
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Petit told talkSPORT: “I’ve been reading things about Arsenal selling William Saliba to Real Madrid. I’m thinking, ‘what the hell?’
“You want to bring in strikers, wingers, and then you sell your best defender? What’s the point? It’s a step back if you do that.
“The first step for Arsenal needs to be to keep their best players.
“If you start selling your best players, starting from Saliba, there’s no way that players like Saka and Rice… they will think, ‘what the hell? What are we doing?'”
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One of the other stars of the season has been Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard
Petit told BesteOnlineCasinoNederland: “I don’t know about the captaincy, but I know that Martin Odegaard had a very, very good season both last season and the season before that.
“I think he was one of the best players at Arsenal which made this season very frustrating, for him, but also for the fans and for different reasons.
“I think the fact that Bukayo Saka didn’t play for four months had a big impact on his game. I think he looked tired as well.
“I come back to the rotation of the team, but when you play every three days, you need to get rotated sometimes, especially during the second part of the season.
“I think he looked tired, physically and mentally and he was missing Saka as well on the pitch. The fact he’s the only creative midfielder is a huge responsibility on his shoulders.
“And the fact he’s the captain, he has to show all the time that he’s among the best players on the pitch. So for different reasons, he didn’t reach the level, the expectations.
“It’s been a very frustrating season so far for him, because when you look at the PSG games, he didn’t have an impact, you know, on both games as well.
“There are still two games to play. The most important is the next one against Newcastle. The least he can do is lead the team to victory and into the Champions League.”