Arsenal ‘inundated’ with offers for their man
According to 90Min, Arsenal have been inundated with offers for Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
The 24-year-old finally looks set to depart the Emirates Stadium after spending 18 years of his life at the red half of London.
Italian side Roma are pushing for a move for the versatile player, who can play as a full-back, wing-back and even as a midfielder.
Jose Mourinho is reportedly desperate to sign him and his club are willing to include an option or an obligation to buy the Englishman.
Went into the Roma club store and asked for Maitland Niles shirt, they said soon 😂😂🤣
— Link Up Arsenal (@LinkUpArsenal) December 29, 2021
After rejecting an approach from Premier League fellows Everton, manager Mikel Arteta hasn’t shown much interest in fielding the Hale End graduate.
It has naturally frustrated the player, who now wants out of his boyhood club. Previously, Everton, Leicester City and Southampton have all thrown admiring glances at Maitland-Niles.
But it’s still unclear which clubs have approached the North London outfit this time around.
Regardless, the reports have continuously emerged that the Englishman’s preference is to join up with Tammy Abraham and Chris Smalling, who have given an idea of what lies ahead of him at Rome.
With Maitland-Niles off, surely we will sign a midfielder in January.
— Gurjit (@GurjitAFC) December 26, 2021
If a decent offer arrives, I won’t lose any sleep if Maitland-Niles does depart North London. In the end he has struggled to establish himself as a first-team player.
But I just wonder how things could have been if Ainsley had not been stubborn and insisted to play as a central midfielder.
He could have developed fantastically as a full-back, especially as a right back. He had all the ingredients to become a top-class player on that side of the pitch.
But not everything you envisage comes true and thus I bid farewell to a top human being Maitland-Niles is. I wish him the best for his future endeavours.
And here is an extra treat for all you Dan Smith fans…
THE JUST ARSENAL SHOW – Dan Smith has a rant over Arteta and ‘Players Welfare”
Already New Year here where I am and I feel the league table is starting to look very familiar. Man City Liverpool Chelsea at the top. Arsenal Spurs and Man U looking likely to round out the top 6.
Just a matter of deciding the order of the “Super League” teams. The more things change the more they stay the same.
Arsenal “product”(🤔) AMN, is apparently wanted by Roma to play at full back, not midfield.
If I had written ‘star’ you would have pulled me up!
Just the word product makes think of a piece of merchandise but in the grand scheme of things perhaps that’s what he is. Happy New Year AdPat😊🥂🍾🎉
And you mate, of course i should have written “Hale End product” or “graduate” i guess….
Declan You may have said that partly in jest but don’t you actually think, as I do, that in our highly moneyed Prem, ALL players are “products”, as in merchandise. It ought NOT to be that way, but in essence, it is.
We fans, esp when we purchase tickets, club merchandise or TV packages are also not seen as anything other than merchandise to be bought and sold. Sigh!
I think this idea that AMN “insisted” he play it midfield, is no longer applicable.
Surely that would have been discussed and sorted out when MA and AMN agreed that there was a future for him?
I cannot think of any time he has let the team down when selected and he has been a model professional at the club.
I, for one, will be sorry to see him leave, without him being given an extended run in any position.
If the rumours that many clubs are interested in him, that speaks for itself and why we would let him go with the African Cup about to start, is another mystery to me.
Still, MA seems to have decided to let him leave and I wish him all the best wherever he finds himself at the end of January.
Why do you think he will go in January ken1945?
I think you are right about AFCON, AMN is needed to cover as an active member of the squad for that and the rest of the season
What the summer brings who knows
That’s what the media is reporting FF, even to the level that they claim personal terms have been agreed and it’s just the transfer fee to be agreed – I hope that isn’t the case.
OK, cheers ken, doesn’t add up to me but I guess we’ll see
The penultimate paragraph of the article is a good assessment of his potential.Wherever he goes, I wish him well.
He has the potential to be a brilliant destroyer in midfield, with the legs to get forward as well, in the style of Kante. Probably not as good but who knows, he’s never really had a proper go. It’s bad timing as I think this ACN period would be the perfect opportunity for him to break through, although I understand his frustration. Best of luck to him if he does go, but I’d hope he hangs on another 6 months.
Crikey Davi, I know, I know it’s all about opinions, but I just don’t get it, he has been in and out of the team for years (it seems) 🤔 but surely if he had anything about him (ability wise) he would start just a string of games, but various managers just don’t rate him, it seems. Maybe a new start for him will prove me wrong, and seriously wish him all the best. There is always a sense of pride when our guys do well for other clubs, for me anyway 🤔🤞
Personally, I am just glad to see one more player about to leave who is, IMO, not even near the standard of player we need in the team to improve us . We would have easily known by now if AMN indeed was good enough, but the truth is he is NOT.
NOT A BAD PLAYER BY ANY MEANS; JUST NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR THE TEAM WE ARE SLOWLY BECOMING.
I reckon most Gooners know this in their hearts. I never let any fondness I have for ANY player, as a person, EVER get in the way of what I consider best for the club.
I am heartened that MA does not do that either, as events have proved, heartwarmingly too!
It must be said though that on Xhaka, what I consider best for our club and what MA considers best for us are completly at odds. But thats the exception that proves the rule.
ShAme the club didn’t take the money on offer in the summer therefore we wouldn’t be in the situation we are now with AMN and the money we are about to post on him ,but hey MA knows best right
Lose on him *
It’s not just AMN though Dan is it? Mari!! Never hardly used and was he seriously considered better than Holding? Soures? Again rarely played and better than Chambers as a back up? Not in my opinion.
Nketiah will be off and has played when we could have given minutes to Balogun. Lots of money wasted but not ever in the eyes of these realists who just cream over everything Arteta
Bellerin as well
Who I believe is out of contract in summer.
I know he wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but he’s now playing quite well and Betis are 3rd in the la liga.
More money wasted and he’s still only 26
DAN, the staggering amount of millions our club has simply chosen to throw away on MANY players , either letting contracts run down to nothing, not selling them when they had the chance and giving obscenely high new contracts to unmotivated, older players, collectively beggars belief.
This has been going on for many years and well before MA or even UE were our managers. It is STILL going on(Auba!! AMN!) but I see serious signs that things are finally changing and we will soon be on a more sound and sensible financial footing.
Perhaps I am too optimistic but I see what I now see and have to conclude we cannot and will not go on as we have been doing since way back into Wengers last several years and ever since.
I know Jon
But we was told that this would not happen post Wenger and it’s gotten a whole lot worse ,4 -5 players on their last 6month s of contracts and like Phil said many more where money as just been wasted by not moving on players .
Dan, yes you are right, so what I learn is not to take much notice of notice of official statments , either in footbal or in life generally . It seems to me that most public statements issued for any supposed supprters to digest can be generally disregarded as agenda ridden and almost always worthless.
Simply put, I listen to actions, not public statements. Words are cheap but actions do not lie. This sort of thing goes on everywhere in public life and certainly not just in elite level football.
This is one reason, among others, why I always bang on about the vital need to be truthful, in a world full of corporate lies!
Without TRUTH, those who MOST suffer are ordinary, mostly decent but helpless folk. All we Gooners know how vastly we have all been deceived, by false statements from those high up in our club, going almost back to The Invincibles era. BASICALLY SINCE MOVING STADIUM!
In my opinion, in midfield he is even more mature on defence side than Sambi and ElNeny, and he has the speed to burst forward and strength to hold the ball, and he makes no silly passes infront of our box.
His cons would be holding the ball too long, no killer passes or shots, he is not very good at the final third in the middle.
Artera does not like him because he speaks highly of Ozil (he did even during the problems) and because he wanted to leave for lack of game time, which is childish from MA if you ask me.
I hope we are watching out for the homegrown quota.