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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