Noel Whelan expects Newcastle United to try to hijack AS Roma’s move for Ainsley Maitland-Niles next month.
The Englishman has been pushing to leave Arsenal for some time now and publicly asked to be let go in the summer when Everton wanted to sign him.
However, Arsenal kept him on with the promise of giving him more first team chances.
That hasn’t been the case, and the midfielder is likely to push to leave the club again next month.
The Daily Mail says Arsenal is in talks with AS Roma over a six-month loan deal for the former West Brom loanee.
Former Leeds man, Whelan, expects relegation-threatened Newcastle to attempt to hijack the move.
He tells Football Insider: “I’m surprised it’s just Roma interested in him. I expect Newcastle to be in for him too, and they could hijack talks.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Maitland-Niles is one of our best squad members and he would be useful next month when we lose Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey to AFCON.
However, it is hard to force a player to remain in your club if they want to leave.
Now is probably the best time to offload him and a loan with an obligation to buy is not a bad idea.
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If the lad has out grown his boots, then he may leave for greener pastures – Teo, Ox, Iwobi, Gibbs ,Jenkinson have tried teh luck elsewhere and we do not miss them, and would not miss AMN either. Sambi looks to be the more promising player at 22 then AMN at 24. Best of luck to AMN, at 24 he needs to be a regular,but isnt, so he needs to improve his training and impress his manager, plain and simple or move. Mikel is no “papa” to tolerate mediocrity unlike his predecessors
A bit harsh LC.He has been treated pretty shabily if the truth be told .Arteta has a lot to learn in terms of man management, saying one thing to pacify AMN then failing to deliver by not giving him game time.AMN is a player of limited ability who should have been sold when he gained his first full cap imo.I hope he does well in Rome or Newcastle.As far as appeal is concerned, I know where I would prefer to visit, no offence to my Geordie friends.