Having the right attitude as a young player. The Saka/Niles parody by Abel
Having the right attitude is key for every young player.
Both Saka and Maitland-Niles are products of the Hale End and were fastracked into the 1st team due to injury crises. That is about as far as the similarities go.
Today Saka is reportedly earning 300k/wk and is the 1st choice starter in his wing position for Arsenal.
He got here by having the right attitude, not taking himself too seriously, and playing wherever he was asked to play. He always gave his best.
He applied himself when Emery drafted him into the team at left back, due to Tierney injury and Xhaka’s disastrous outing there. He excelled and contributed to attack as well, leading to him being moved into left wing before later being moved into the right wing, which is his favourite position.
Let us juxtapose Maitland-Niles career in Arsenal.
He was a mediocre young midfielder at best and was drafted into RB when we had a crisis and he excelled there. He was also discovered to be able to play LB as well as he plays both feet.
He subsequently insisted on going on loan if he wouldn’t be played in his favourite position. He went on a 6-month loan to West Brom who played him in his favourite position, and he didn’t pull up any trees save for a few decent performances. The team went down as they shipped in too many goals.
Arsenal then bought a right back and left back (Tomiyasu and Tavares) with the latter to deputize for the often-injured Tierney. Niles had no role to play in the team and went out on loan, this time to Roma where he was drafted to RB (same role he had rejected at Arsenal) this time his attitude and poor display relegated him to the bench, and he was returned to us intact after a half-season loan.
He next went off on loan to Southampton to play at RB. A combination of injury and poor displays marred his season as he was unable to displace Kyle Walker-Peters.
Southampton have been relegated and Niles is now out of contract and would likely pitch his tent with a Championship team next season.
Things could have gone differently for him at Arsenal if he had the right attitude.
He could have been a backup to Tomiyasu who is injury prone or a like-for-like back up to Zinchenko, as he also feels at home in midfield and would easily fit into Arteta’s inverted fullback role and be more defensively adept than Zinchenko.
Alas, he will live to rue his poor choices having let a promising top level career slip through his fingers.
Abel
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Attitude plays a big part in how a player develops, as well as family background. Saka has had a settled family life and AMN has had a more difficult time of it.
You still have to have ability and Saka is more talented. There is still time to recover from less than successful loan spells but time is running out
Maybe Saka’s demeanor looks slightly better than Maitland-Niles’, but Saka is obviously more talented and rarer in football world
Not many footballers can play well in five positions across the field, particularly the ones who can play inverted roles very well. I wouldn’t be surprised if he can play CF too
A versatile left-footed player with good close control, pace, physicality and fitness is also quite rare
Huge differences between their respective situations. Saka was very temporarily deployed at LB and everyone knew it whereas AMN was told he’s a back up RB or nothing.
He certainly didn’t excel at RB either.
Stop telling half truths to suit your agenda please and rather be honest.
How do you know he will rue his decisions? He wanted to try and be a midfielder, what is so bad about that? At least he had the courage to put his career on the line and go for it, I’d much rather have that then someone that’s just happy to go along for the ride and pick up wages!
Also there’s thousands of youth players around Europe with a great attitude like Saka, why aren’t they all starters in the top divisions in their countries?
Saka is extremely talented and delayed signing a contract which was very smart on his part….that’s why he’s on 300k.
Hard to blame for delaying when he was literally improving every week!
We have still got a bargain even at that price.
Where did I blame anyone? I said it was smart on Saka’s part!
And Saka certainly hasn’t improved in the last few months, not having a go at him at all but let’s be honest here shall we.
Funny how the author dodged the part of Arteta rejecting £20m from Wolves for AMN while promising him game time and then leaving him to rot on the bench. His career might have gone in a more promising direction.
This is your own made up view. There is actually no evidence Wolves offered £20mill for AMN.
Arsenal did turn down a bid of around 20 mil from Wolves.
“He wanted to try and be a midfielder, what is so bad about that? At least he had the courage to put his career on the line and go for it”
Despite what I’ve said below, I’m very sympathetic to this view. We don’t know exactly how AMN and arteta viewed this situation, and a lot of what everyone has said, myself included, is based on speculation. What you’ve said here has merit imo
I was told Maitland Niles was better then Kante lol
Which Dan are you ? Dan Smith, Daniel Smith,
Dan Kit, Dan O., Dan or one of the other Dans ?
Anyway, your post is clearly designed to confuse everyone (well me anyway). It was a joke wasn’t it, hence the lol at the end. I can never know for sure with some of the posts on JA.
😂
No it really wasnt
I remember it vividly
Debate went on for days
Dan – it is you “Dan” – same icon. They don’t call me Sherlock for nothing. You have to get up early in the morning to catch me out ! Mind you, looks like you ARE already up “early in the morning”. Get some sleep my good man.
I’ll forgive you for that outrageous post, but try not to do it again. Many thanks.
Attitude is indeed important but unless a player also has the required level of TALENT,which I suggest AM-N did not have , he is doomed, however good his attitude might be.
Not that HIS attitude was good,, as it was poor, extremely so too.
Saka is on 200k not 300k, 4x his previous salary.
Practically all news outlets are reporting £300k
Not all though and Gun Down below has the confirmation.⬇️
200 ~ 290 based on performance bonuses
Sake has more skill in his little finger than AMN !!!
for goodness SAKE.
Fingers don’t really feature in football, unless you’re a goalkeeper.
AMN showed great attitude when we won the cup playing on the left hand side when he prefers the right. He played well in the final and the semi. It hasn’t worked out for him but do not forget the contribution he has made to this rebuilt Arsenal team even if he did not last.
I think he lost out when Arteta switched to a back four, he was great as a wing back.
Poor attitude is out of question here. I think some people were keen in frustrating him in arsenal. The boy was loyal to the club’s authorities. I blame Arteta for his ordeal. The made known his preferred position and promised him of game and later said he would be back up. Why did Arteta refuse letting him go when Wolves came calling? Granted Saka is a rare breed but AMN was also a promising rising star whose talent was waisted.
Poor attitude is out of question here. I think some people were keen in frustrating him in arsenal. The boy was loyal to the club’s authorities. I blame Arteta for his ordeal. The boymade known his preferred position and he promised of more game time and later was told he would be a back up. Why did Arteta refuse letting him go when Wolves came calling? Granted Saka is a rare breed but AMN was also a promising rising star whose talent was waisted.
I think the article leaves out that AMN did play a few games in midfield for us a couple of seasons so (in the europa league, I believe), and largely did well. Some were even calling for him to start in some pl games.
I’d also say that the only times I thought he looked outstanding were when he was played at left back or left wing back – strangely never on the right side of defence.
Aside from that it’s hard to disagree. Seems he wanted to play midfield at the cost of his own career, which could have been in a much better place had he taken the opportunities afforded him.
I cannot forget some of the matches he played for us, where he completely dominated the left side. His athleticism, skill and ability to shut down dangermen was, frankly, exceptional. He’s wasting his talent, which is sad.
@ Davi
I am so glad you noticed the same thing that AMN was better as a left back of left wing back rather than RB or midfield.
Even though he has regressed he is still better than Zinchenko Xhaka and we need a backup LB if KT is leaving. I think he should be given a 1 year deal s a stop gap whilst we sign a versatile full back who can play on both sides.
Thanks IGL. Unfortunately, I think his ship has now sailed (probably a while ago on truth). I really do believe there’s so much talent in AMN, but he’s gone off the rails, and needs to move down to a smaller club, possibly in the championship. He could be the type to have a renaissance later in his career, but he needs to get his attitude sorted, which i think means settling somewhere for a while with a manager who believes in him.
You may be right there.
OT: I really like Norton Cuffy @ RB when I watched him in their defeat to Luton in the play-off’s. He looked well built for PL. I think he is better than White and Tomiyasu. We can then just look at the LB position to strengthen in defence assuming Saliba stays.
I’ve only seen a bit of Norton cuffy, but i wouldn’t be surprised if he was ready to make the step up this year – I certainly hope so. Physically he looks excellent and he has some skill with the ball. Taking over from white might be difficult though, and he has to be adaptable to arteta’s tactical setup. We’ll see what happens with him. It might be another loan, but to a pl side?
left back or left wing (not left back of left wing).
Talent is the basic in all but the MIND/attitude separates the GREAT from the good in all sports and all human endeavours.
The comparison is unsound. The circumstances are quite different and Saka is on a completely different level when it comes to talent and understanding of football.
To make a reasonable case you need to compare AMN with another player who has or had a similar level of ability and then achieved great success through application and attitude.