What Maitland-Niles’ departure means?
According to some of the top journalists in Europe, Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles has a tempting offer from Italian side Roma.
Jose Mourinho apparently wants him at Roma and his team are willing to include a loan with an option to buy for around €10 million.
With 18 months left on his current deal, it will only be rational on the part of the North London side to accept the offer. In the end, he’s just a squad player.
With Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny set to take the flight to Africa to participate in AFCON, Mikel Arteta will only have two senior midfielders next month.
However, that is not a problem as Granit Xhaka and summer signing Albert Sambi Lokonga have both impressed this season.
The real problem is a lack of cover for them. Putting Charlie Patino straight in the starting eleven would be naïve.
A better option would be to recall Miguel Azeez, who’s on loan at League One side Portsmouth, and is much further ahead in his development than Patino.
The former has played nine senior games in his career, one for Arsenal and eight for his current club. But the most likely outcome will be Edu trying to bring in a fresh body.
Arsenal have been linked with various names in the past month or so:
Arthur Melo, Juventus
Philippe Coutinho, Barcelona
Mattias Svanberg, Bologna
Denis Zakaria, Borussia Mönchengladbach
After Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli cemented their place in the first team, Emile Smith Rowe has seen little action.
Arteta has also been reluctant to play him as a “left number eight,” a position that has been occupied by Xhaka, who’s not necessarily a number eight.
Writer’s view: Bologna’s Svanberg and Juventus’ Arthur Melo are the ones to look out for in the upcoming transfer window.
They both have qualities of a number six as well as number eight and would do Xhaka’s present job with more effectiveness.
However, ruling out the signing of Zakaria would be short-sighted too. The midfielder is out of contract in the summer and Arsenal can acquire him by paying a nominal fee to their German counterparts.
It will be very intriguing to see who the Gunners will end up signing. Or will they?
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