I don't know but when have you ever heard of a club cancelling these sort of agreements?
Many players are recalled early from their loan spells; for example Arsenal themselves recalled Eddie Nketiah from Leeds United in January, despite the fact that Leeds themselves where unhappy about said recall.
That would send a terrible signal to other clubs the next time you try to sign a player.
Despite the fact that many other clubs do the exact same thing across multiple seasons. I mean it's not like Arsenal would be breaking any rules by recalling Saliba, especially when he is on Arsenal's books and not St Etienne's.
I think we did try to buy him directly and St Etienne flat out refused. And i don't think they were bluffing, 30M is a lot of money for them but a pretty easy gamble. Clubs would have been there this summer for him even with COVID 19.
William Saliba himself wanted to join Arsenal (or so he has claimed); so if St Etienne where open to selling Saliba regardless, I don't see how the club would hold much leverage against Arsenal considering that the club where offering a decent fee for Saliba & said player wanted to go to said club.
Regardless if that was indeed true (which would indicate how far the club has fallen), then it would mean that Raul Sanllehi
(1) was lying about why Saliba was loaned back to St Etienne. Although to be fair, the reasons that Sanllehi gave for loaning Saliba where pretty stupid if you ask me.
(1) https://talksport.com/football/578943/arsenal-william-saliba-saint-etienne/
That's oversimplying things. First of all the deal was done with Emery and he and the board had absolutely no plan to try out things with youth. His only goal was to get top 4 or a Europa League. And as much as you can hate X or Y, at CB you have to go with experience. You can't throw a 19y old against Aguero,Kane and Salah and hope for the best. Those old guys may get destroyed but i think it just a game of odds and you often have better ones with experienced players in this position.
Emery could have reached Top 4 Last Season had he stuck with the Monreal-Koscielny-Sokratis Back 3 (With Kolasinac at LWB & Bellerín at RWB) week in week out in the Premier League, especially when you had some your best performances with a 3-5-2 (including wins against Tottenham, Manchester United, Valencia & Napoli). Since this was no longer possible this season
(1), he should have been willing to give Medley, Mavropanos & Saliba chances rather than give them to Mustafi & Luiz. Mainly because anyone with any sort of footballing brain would work out that a Back 4 of Kolasinac-Luiz-Mustafi-Bellerín would never enable a team to reach Top 4, especially when none of them can actually defend (especially in a Back 4) and are either too set their ways (Kolasinac, Luiz & Mustafi) or are too arrogant (Bellerín) to actually learn how to defend.
So Emery had a choice, give "experienced" players a chance to always fail against the likes of Aguero, Kane & Salah or give inexperienced (but who are willing to learn & self-improve) players a chance to at least try and succeed against said 3 players (which given time and the right training/advice, will likely obtain such skills). Emery & Arteta have chosen the former and the end result has been one of them getting the sack and the other struggling to get Arsenal above mid-table.
Thus, the moral of the story is that its better to trust inexperienced CBs that want to be better, rather than experienced CBs that will always be crap.
(1) The Koscielny departure could not he prevented, but getting Monreal out was crimminal when he actually was pretty sold at LCB (even if he was finished at LB). Then again we are talking about a Manager/Board that thought that getting rid of Wilshire, Ramsey & Cazorla was a good idea, despite the fact they where your 3 best midfielders and your best candidates for captain. As well getting David Luiz...
Come on now, Bellerin has lost a lot of his explosiveness after his injury but Chambers has never been and will never be a better RB than him. He gets turned and left for dead against Championship players. His best bet is to be a #3CB that you can sometimes use with a very good player alongside him.
While Bellerin is far better as an attacking full-back than Chambers (hence why he should be playing as a RWB than a RB); when it comes to defensive work, workrate and attitude, Bellerin is so bad in all 3 accounts that Chambers is easily better than him in all 3 regards.
Thus Chambers is a better RB (in a Back 4) than Bellerin. Even if Chambers is also nowhere near good enough to play RB for Arsenal, for that you need to get someone like Ricardo Pereira for that kind of role.
Holding had a good game yesterday and hopefully he can get back to his form pre-injury and stay fit for a whole season.
Arteta is best advised to have a Holding-Saliba-Sokrartis CB partnership next season. With Mari, Chambers, Mavropanos & Medley as backups and both Luiz & Mustafi being kicked out of the club.