Gunners starlet on Real’s radar – report

Young defender William Saliba is reportedly being targeted by Real Madrid as a long-term replacement for Sergio Ramos. Saliba, 18, signed a reported five-year deal with the Gunners last summer when moving from French top-flight club Saint-Etienne.
The France Under-20 ace was loaned back to the Ligue 1 outfit for the 2019-20 campaign and has made five league appearances for Les Verts, turning a few heads with his performances.
One such admirer is said to be Los Blancos chief Zinedine Zidane, according to the Express, who has added the youngster to his list of potential targets to fill the sizable boots of Ramos, the man capped 168 times by Spain.
Whether he would be allowed to leave is another matter, with the Parisian one of under-pressure boss Unai Emery’s big-money signings, costing £27m.
Saint-Etienne are currently managed by former Southampton and Leicester City boss Claude Puel, who recently expressed his disappointment that the talented starlet had been allowed to leave for the Emirates in the first place. “Is this model viable? I don’t think it can make the club a success,” he said. “Rather than buying a ready-made player, I’d rather we buy him to develop him and help him grow. “It’s hard to accept that we sell our best player, a young kid, to help fill the squad.”
Saliba has yet to make an appearance for the north Londoners and if the news of Zidane’s interest is true, he may never wear the red shirt, but it seems any move would not take place until the end of the season.
Ramos will be 34 next March and, with more than 600 appearances for the La Liga giants, will go down as a club legend.
However, players cannot go on forever and it is inevitable the capital outfit will look to usher in a new central defender before too much longer.