Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been praised for seeking out a move away from Arsenal last month, with Paul Robinson claiming he is unafraid of making ‘challenging’ moves.
The 23 year-old has spent much of his senior career being utilised as a full-back or wing-back for Arsenal, despite making his intentions clear that he prefers to be played in the middle of the park.
AMN is finally getting his chance to put a marker down as a central midfielder moving forwards, with Sam Allardyce agreeing to take him on loan until the end of the season with that in mind.
Former Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson has praised the decision by Maitland-Niles to seek out his move, whilst telling the Football Insider that his move has put him in the ‘shop window’.
“I think fair play to him for going to West Brom. He had a number of places where he could have gone but he wanted to play in midfield. He’s not afraid of a challenging move.
“He’s obviously spoken to Big Sam and he’s told him he’s going to play in midfield where he wants to play.
“He hasn’t shirked going into a relegation battle with a team who are playing poorly around him.
“He showed good energy against Tottenham. There were sparks of what West Brom had in him going forward. You quite often saw him in the box and his forward movement was good.
“So I think he’ll be a good signing for them. He’s definitely better than what they would have had between now and the end of the season.
“I don’t think he’ll stay there should they go down, but he’s certainly putting himself in the shop window.”
Has AMN played his last game in an Arsenal shirt? Does anyone believe he could show a level of ability at CM to persuade Mikel Arteta to accept his role?
Patrick
I think it’s important to focus on how AMN performs personally rather than be influenced by the match result for WBA who I do not expect to avoid relegation.I did not see the match against Spurs, but my Brother in Law tells me AMN was one of the better players for WBA and Paul Robinson seems to be positive about his performance.I trust Arsenal will be monitoring AMN closely and hopefully he will convince our Management that he can cut it in CM.