William Saliba's exit from Arsenal celebrated by his old team-mate Wesley Fofana

William Saliba's exit from Arsenal was celebrated by his former Saint Etienne team-mate Wesley Fofana on Instagram as he claimed his fellow Frenchman was 'finally free' after joining Nice on loan.

The centre-back suffered a nightmare start to his Gunners career as he was left out of Mikel Arteta's Premier League and Europa League squads and failed to make a single appearance in his first six months at the Emirates.

Arteta admitted he was 'fed up' about the situation and said the youngster was in need of a 'transition year' to gain experience before being ready for the first team.

Saliba has made his frustrations clear about his lack of football, recently joking he was 'locked up' at Arsenal, and he has now received the backing of Fofana - who started his career at French side Saint Etienne alongside him.

After hearing news of his loan move back to France, Leicester defender Fofana posted a screenshot of the story and wrote: 'He is finally free', followed by a celebrating emoji.

Fofana joined the youth ranks of Saint Etienne in 2015, with Saliba arriving the following year. Both players made their debuts for the French side in the 2018-19 season. Saliba - who went on to seal a £27m move to the Gunners the following year - played 16 games.

Fofana featured just twice that year but ended up with 30 appearances before being signed by Leicester this season.

Following Saliba's exit, Arsenal insisted they were hoping to see the defender develop further during his time in France with a view to introducing him to the first team next season.

Technical director Edu told his club's official website: 'William Saliba is a player with a huge amount of talent and potential. We're confident he will have a great career with us but we must remember that he is still only 19 years old and has a lot of time ahead of him.'

'William experienced a very challenging time last year, with his playing time limited by injury and the early ending of the Ligue 1 season due to the pandemic.

'So together with William, we have decided that spending the rest of the season on loan with Nice is the best way for him to develop. We will be keeping in close contact with William during his time with Nice and look forward to seeing him make good progress until the end of the season.'

Saliba was sent back on loan to St-Etienne last season as part of his transfer deal with Arsenal and made 17 appearances. His spell was disrupted by injuries as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

St-Etienne were interested in taking him on loan again but the player ended up joining Nice, who will not pay a fee but will cover the defender's wages.

He had joined Mesut Ozil as a Gunners outcast this season, with Arteta not calling upon him even with the team struggling at the bottom of the table. The Spaniard explained that he simply had too many centre backs and was keen to see Saliba evolve more as a footballer.

He said in November: 'I'm fed up with the situation because, as you could see, we tried to find a way in the last few days to give him some football.

'I explained that he needed that transition year when we decided to buy him and send him on loan to St-Etienne. For many reasons, that didn't happen – he didn't have that transition year and he needs to go through that.

'At the moment, with the amount of central defenders we have in the team, we had to leave him out of the squad, which is painful. Now we have some injuries and we could have used him but this is part of the profession.'