Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere has hinted that they could keep Arsenal loanee William Saliba beyond the end of the current season.
Arsenal decided to send Saliba to Nice on a six-month loan deal last week, with Mikel Arteta keen for the defender to play first-team football.
The Gunners invested £20 million ($27m) in the 19-year-old's talents in the summer of 2019 before allowing him to remain at Saint-Etienne on loan for another year, but he has not seen a single minute of action for Arteta's side since linking up with his new team-mates in north London.