According to Sky Sports, Ainsley Maitland-Niles is close to agreeing a move to Wolves, where he has been offered a four year deal.
The versatile 22 year old changed his agent during the season, often a sign a player is open to a transfer elsewhere, and despite the faith shown in him by Mikel Arteta towards the end of the season, it looks as if he’ll be the first high profile departure of this transfer period.
His future has been in some doubt for a while, having spent some time out of the team before the lockdown, and although he said he’d play anywhere the manager picked him, has hinted at a desire to nail down a place in his favourite position as a winger.
It was recently reported that although he’s a player Arteta would like to keep, he’s one that Arsenal are willing to let go.
Maitland-Niles started both the FA Cup semi-final and final, playing a role in our cup success, but it now looks as if his time at the club is coming to an end.
There’s no mention of a fee yet, so it will be very interesting to see what kind of deal we’re doing for a young, English homegrown talent.
Only £20m?
Effing hell, that’s too cheap!
What if nobody offers more? We’re in a dilemma then, aren’t we. Would we keep him (although Arteta clearly doesn’t want to) or take “Only £20 million”? The bottom line is, in any market – footballers here, but anything else – something is only worth what somebody else is prepared to pay for it. Let’s hope Wolves do want to pay substantially more, but I wouldn’t hold your breath .
We could keep him, and sell other players who contribute much less. Ozil comes to mind. That requires our transfer guy (whoever that is now) to do a bit of work.
If we’re not able to sell the deadwood, the owner should absorb the loss, not ‘balance’ the books by selling anyone who fetches a fee. Anyway, let’s see what the fee is.
That would be ideal but in reality we can only sell the players that other teams actually want! And on the other hand I’m sure AMN himself will want more game time in his preferred positions.
Not certain AMN is going to be playing at wing for Wolves.
Of the positions he played at Arsenal? Wing might be the one he’s least-suited for at a PL level.
He’s a better wingback and fullback.
Quite. It boils down to the “idealist” view and the “practical” one.
The problem being that there are no takers for Ozil on his ludicrously out of whack money
And that’s the problem here, no amount of work will make that deal likely to happen
“We” could keep him, but “we” aren’t Arteta. It’s fairly clear, I think, that the coach doesn’t see AMN as part of his plans (or the player wouldn’t be on the transfer list, would he?). AMN presumably knows that as well. Nice to feel wanted, or not. You talk about selling Ozil – to whom? Nobody will buy Ozil because (understandably) nobody will match his huge wages and he won’t (equally understandably) leave for a pay cut. Why will the owners “absorb the loss” as you put it? Arsenal is a business – do you really expect our owners to… Read more »
Ha! Yes why don’t we just sell Ozil instead, why didn’t the people upstairs think of that?!?
I’d like you to, hand on heart, answer your own sarcastic question with – “they’ve tried their best”. That’s not been true for decades now.
I’m amazed (not in a good way) with some of the blind faith on display here. Being a fan has to mean something more than going from “Arsene knows” to “Sven Golden Eye” to “Don Raul” to “Unai’s the one” to “Arteta’s The One” to “Edu/Vinai Have a Plan”.
Honest question: How exactly would you try harder? He’s on 350k per week and refuses to take less before his contract runs out. He doesn’t really want to leave London as he and his family like it there. He has had a meagre handful of good performances in over two years, he is beyond his physical peak and three managers have left him out of the squads altogether which hints at a stinking attitude. So again, how would you convince someone to pay 350k/week for such a player? How would you convince him to leave? At this point he’s a… Read more »
Fck all do with transfer guy ozil won’t leave full stop until contract runs out, so that defo won’t be happening, plus its 22ml for Amn which will go towards partey money,
If Niles and Guendouzi combined will give us the required funds to sign Partey, then YES please.
We are improving quality over quantity and that’s precisely what we need.
Or, depressingly, AMN’s fee pays for another year of Mesut Sulkil.
Problem for me with that is that we now either keep Kolasinac (not a big fan of that idea), have Saka as back up for Tierney (not a big fan of that idea either) or buy a back up left back, which will be hard to get for way less than the money we’re getting for Ains. This really makes no sense to me, especially considering that we just today released a statement regarding us making that Cedric deal permanent. If I had something to say, I’d try to sell: Leno (25m), Mustafi (10m), Sokratis (5m), Kolasinac (15m), Torreira (25m),… Read more »
Ok let me clear a couple of things – No one, and I mean no one, is buying Kolasinac in this current climate on the current wages he’s on with the quality he possesses. He will act as back up to KT and play our cup games and I am more than ok with that. And no one is buying a crocked Mustafi for any money and we aren’t extending him, so let’s face reality and accept that he will play a bit part role once fit and leave on a free. Let’s not sell Leno just because Martinez looked… Read more »
Disagree. Kolasinac is still a Bosnian international in his best years with loads of experience and Mustafi is a former World Cup winner who had 2 really bad seasons but has shown that he’s actually capable of some quite good defending lately and is also in a good age for a central defender. Think 10 mio for Mustafi and 15 for Kola are prices for which we could be able to offload them. And I’m confident enough to go forward with Emi and think the money we can generate there (coupled with the significantly bigger wages we’d safe) makes this… Read more »
This would absolutely be realistic if reality was the same as FIFA career mode.
Wouldn’t sell Leno, but can’t argue with the rest. Touch optimistic on the money but we shall see
I’d rather sell Torriera and Guendouzi
Gutted. Lose AMN and gain old man Soares. Fail
The image of a slimy Joorabchian effectively forcing Cedric onto us and therefore losing AMN makes me absolutely sick
I have my doubts that we’re losing AMN because we got Cedric. If anything, I wonder if we knew we’d likely lose AMN and picked up Cedric as cover for that reason. In terms of bringing in a backup RB on the cheap, I think you could definitely do worse than Cedric–just think back to Lichtsteiner!
AMN does not want to play right back or wing back…he wants to play in midfield and thats why he’s leaving….not only that but we don’t need him lol at all
Ceballos staying at Madrid.
Torreira off to Milan.
Willock really needs a loan.
But nah, we don’t need midfielders.
Arsenal must sign Thomas Partey from Atheltico
Madness.
Trouble is that the only players we can sell are ones other teams want to buy!
Other teams like Wolves, not exactly Bayern Munich or Real Madrid
Wolves who finished 3 points ahead of us in the table last year. And now we are helping them out by Selling them a young home-grown player with a lot of potential, who just played well in big games against Man City and Chelsea.
But can’t get in our starting 11
If he can get a gig at left wing for Wolves, good luck to him.
Absolutely, and if it means the funds can go towards a top centre back or central midfielder, we both win.
I understand why so many fans love him (academy player) but we badly need to upgrade our midfield & he’s a squad player we can get a decent amount of money for due to the homegrown / English premium. If Arteta genuinely viewed him as a top prospect/starter quality player he wouldn’t be selling him given how desperately thin our midfield is.
If he was a top player he’d be playing wouldn’t he?
22 years old and 100 matches played doesn’t make him a novice anymore do it?
It is exactly why the timing of this sale is actually really smart. He had some nice post lockdown games (two in particular). Thus, he gets noticed and people are like, “oh yeah, this kid is good and fast”, but no-one noticed him during his lean stretches when he made many, many defensive blunders, failed to track back a lot and sulked for a while there too. His attitude and form have ticked up dramatically – people have short memories – so sell him while his stocks are high. “SELL HIGH”, that is the smartest thing, but hardest thing to… Read more »
Exactly, we missed the chance with the Walcott’s of this world.
We’ve seen enough of him to know what he’s about and after 100 matches he’s definitely closer to Walcott than Fabregas!
I get what you’re trying to say there. Not a bad point.
But keep in mind, Walcott scored 108 goals for the club, some big ones. The club bought him for 12M and sold him for 24M. A good player, and good business. So he’s not the 2nd coming of Henry, so what. Noone is.
Depends on what you want Arsenal to be? Theo Walcott was a perfectly serviceable player if you wanted to challenge for the champions league spots but be consistently double digits in league points away from being champions. My point being that there is a sweet spots in a players career where it’s reasonably clear they’re not quite very top quality but still be viewed as a top prospect by another club whom might pay a premium. I think if sold at the right time we could have got £35-40m for Walcott. I think we could have got good money for… Read more »
Bit harsh on Theo there I feel, and the comparison between him and Cesc isn’t exactly fair. Theo was a very good player for us, maybe not world-class, but he gave his all, got injured doing so, but scored some fantastic goals and contributed well from a wide position. As someone else has said, no he’s not the second-coming of Thierry, but frankly few players will be. Just like very few can do what Bergkamp did. But football moves on, and if Ainsley does, good luck to him (except against us). He’s earnt a starting spot somewhere, if that’s got… Read more »
Look i had no problem with Walcott and thought he had his qualities, but he wasn’t in the very top bracket.
My point is, there’s a time and place to sell that kind of player when their value is at it’s highest to trade up, I think that’s where were at with Maitland-Niles.
I’ve got no real issue with us selling Ainsley, I’m not sure I agree with you that Ainsley’s value in the market is at its highest – I think the market is heavily affected by covid, so much so that I think had he been sold last summer without the back end of this season’s performances we’d have been commanding a price of £25m+, but that’s life. I also think had Theo not been hampered my long term injuries in the way he had been, he could have got to the a very very high level, it just wasn’t meant… Read more »
+1. Nothing but good wishes for AMN. But if he’d missed the FA semis and finals or performed poorly (glad he didn’t) in them, people would be calling this a masterstroke. He was hardly in Arteta’s plan before that. Great lad, but 20-25 million for a player who’s yet to find his best position and isn’t an England regular is more than a fair deal.
I think a 22 years old player is far from being complete. (We bought Nacho when he was 27 and Sagna when he was 24).
Cedric in my opinion is not a bad fullback (and seems to be a really good lad) but against the likes of Sterling, Rashford, Martial or Traore?
100 games is enough to know what future a player has at any given club, I mean we still don’t have any idea what position Maitland-Niles players ffs.
And sorry but Maitland-Niles is consistently dribble past, any idea that he’s a full back is ridiculous, his passing isn’t up to much either.
Yes. Young English players are saleable assets, and we’ve previously got more for Iwobi and Ox than for any other sales. If we need money, it’s a good move to make a squad player like AMN available and see what we can get. It’s better than letting him plateau and selling him for next to nothing to a Championship side in five years like with Gibbs.
It’s more than just a nostalgia boner for having one of our own, he’s a genuinely decent player who has proved time and again a valuable squad player. I don’t think his performances in the FA cup should be sniffed at as “par for the course”, he played exceptionally well. And that’s the end result of a lot of hard work and suffering. So first of all you want a player with that capacity to stay, and second you want him to at least go for £30m plus, especially if it’s to a rival team.
He also had several very poor games particularly when played at fullback (not wingback). He’s a squad player – nothing more & getting 20m in this environment is pretty decent as that will come pretty close to covering the cost of a new starting CB for us.
Exactly. Personally he’d be my first choice right back or wing back (depending on set-up). I don’t think it’s even close between him and Bellerin. But if either he’s not interested in playing there (despite what he said) or arteta doesn’t view him as first choice then that money is more important to us in order to improve a regular starting Xi. If he’s still going to be back up and we can’t move others on then we have to sell, sadly.
We know what we are doing, we got rid of Gnabry and what has he ever done? (apart from 13 goals in 13 games for Germany)
Sure, every young player we sell is the same as Gnabry. Great take.
So… let’s not sell any more academy graduates?
We didn’t “get rid of” Gnabry. As Blogs discussed on a recent podcast, and as has often been mentioned here–nobody at Arsenal, especially Wenger, wanted Gnabry to leave. He was viewed as a future starter and, indeed, before a serious knee injury, had played for us quite a bit. The loan move was necessary to get him playing time as he recovered; clearly, it was to the wrong club and manager, but I can’t imagine that was what determined Gnabry’s future. He is German, and it was always apparent that the move to Frankfort was just a short interlude on… Read more »
He played 18 games, less than 5 times that of Maitland-Niles.
Did the club want him to go? No, but thats not the same as saying he was highly rated either otherwise we wouldn’t have allowed his contract to run down and be forced into selling him
This is rewriting of history, it’s clear he wasn’t as highly valued as suggested otherwise we would have tied him down to a longer contract before he was sent out on loan, or played him but alas we didn’t do either.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions Arsenal fans have about Gnaby leaving as if he was pushed out. If he had had any decency he would have signed a new contract with the understanding he would be allowed to go to Bayern direct after repaying Wenger for the loyalty shown to him when he was seriously injured. Instead we had the charade of Werder Bremen buying him for £4.5M & a year later being passed on to Bayern for £7.2M. But in the shark infested waters that is professional football today decency or doing the right thing seems to… Read more »
“the loyalty shown to him when he was seriously injured”
Deary me, he had a contract that the club had to honour, it wasn’t loyalty!
What everyone seems to forget is that Gnabry wanted to go. I was against selling him as well, but if he was going to take off on a free then it was right to get something for him. The real problem was the pittance they got for him.
Arsenal were shafted, but could do nothing about it. No clubs were going to give us a decent fee for him since he only wanted to play for Bayern Munich.
Are we swapping him with Adama Traoré?
Ruben Neves please.
In all seriousness, assuming we’re in the region of £20-25m+ this is a pretty good deal. I don’t see him being happy as a bit part player, nor do I see him as good enough to nail down a starting spot. In an ideal world of course we’d keep him- I’ve said on here many times how useful utility players are- but really our starting XI is priority at the moment and that’s not going to improve unless we move some players on.
Good luck Ainsley!
Diogo Jota please.
If we are going for a CL spot – the sqad will be at least as important. I think our starting 11 is much closer to the top sides than our squad.
.. by improving the starting XI you’re also improving the squad though. Those that are currently starters will drop to the bench. The reverse isn’t true, we shouldn’t be aiming to improve only our squad.
Not necessarily… for example if we would by Ronaldo + Shane Long for 120M at the expense of selling Auba and Laca – we would have a stronger first 11 but weeker squad.
You used our twice in your comment. Which squad are you referring to that is Champions League quality?
If it’s Wolves, Jorge Mendes is the reason. He convinced a lot Portuguese international who had already played Champions League football to swap Portuguese football for the EFL Championship.
Otherwise those transfers were not happening.
I’d take Diogo Jota while at it.
Don’t worry everyone, we’ve already replaced him with a below average journeyman six years his senior.
Spot on. Some people don’t like the truth I guess!
Not sure why this got down voted so much. The Soares deal is the exact thing we should be avoiding. AMN will still develop into a better player, I think it’s mad that we’re selling him.
Jury is still out on that one. Maitland Niles wasnt considered a full back at the time to be fair, not sure if he didn’t want to be.
its not as straight forward as that. AMN wants to play regularly in has favourite position in midfield , and he doesn’t want to sit around playing cup games at right back or left back. soares seems to be happy being back up. we cant let AMN run his contract down and leave for nothing or next to nothing in a year or two.
“… and although he said he’d play anywhere the manager picked him, has hinted at a desire to nail down a place in his favourite position as a winger.”
Have to be honest. He’s not a winger. I have never seen him maneuver past a defender, and his crosses are below par. AMN is a big, fast, right-sided fullback/wingback. A ball winner.
My Southampton friend thinks it’s v funny that we have got Soares, as he isn’t good enough for Southampton.
There are many examples of players leaving smaller clubs and performing far better than expected. I’m not sold on him either but let’s wait and see eh. Fair chance he’ll play better surrounded by (in theory) better players and at a (no disrespect) bigger club.
They were only 4 points behind us.
Georginio Wijnaldum. Outdone himself.
You know he starts for Portugal?
Euro winner isn’t he? Suggests he has a bit of fight if nothing else …
Exactly. And has been good for them whenevrr I’ve seen them play (rarely). Conversely I never watch Soton, so I’m happy to wait and see.
I have a few Southampton mates who tell me he’s superb. I also have Portuguese friends who tell me how consistent he is for Portugal. All a matter of opinion – let’s see how he does, but I personally think Cedric is a much better defender than AMN.
Guarantees Hector goes nowhere though, so that’s something
In a world where Ben Chilwell costs 50m, 20m for AMN is disgustingly cheap :/
Chelsea have more money than sense. If they wanted to buy him we could triple It.
Agreed, but Chilwell only costs that because that is what Chelsea will pay for him. if the highest bid we have for AMN is £20 mil , then we need to take it and invest it elsewhere in the team. I’m sure there will be clauses in the deal to make us a bit more money down the line anyway. plus Chilwell is a better player than AMN in many peoples eyes. That’s why we are selling AMN to Wolves and not Bayern Munich or Real Madrid.
Yeah, also we sold Iwobi for 35m.
I think it is the Corona-effect though..
We shouldn’t be selling him at all, one of our best players last season, madness
Come on.. He had some great games post-lockdown but was largely disappointing for most of the campaign (as were most of the players). And he’s been pretty inconsistent for most of his career.
He has performed very well every time he’s been called upon. In positions where he is not a natural. I’d rather we didn’t sell him, but if that will lead to a signing that immediately improves the team……..
It might be a good idea to include a buy back clause though. With a capped price.
He’s had some shocking games too. Including a fair few where he was partly responsible for goals for not chasing back whilst playing rb. A good player on his day, but I’m done with having players whose days only come a handful of times a season. Many of these players will be leaving with a sense of ‘what if’; im sure, for example, he’d have progressed far more if he’d had a coach like Arteta for longer. But he didn’t and we need the money. Such is life.
Such is life indeed, we are quite happy to pay our most expensive player to likely sit on the benches for another season but someone who works hard, improves and can play in several positions is sold on the minute someone waves some money under our nose. And to a direct rival! Players are expected to be loyal to their club, well that works both ways. If we need to sell in midfield then Torreira is unsettled, AMN had a better session than him. Besides DM’s are a dying breed in the modern game anyway.
There’s very little point comparing any other player to Ozil though. Clearly that’s an extremely toxic and quite frankly ridiculous scenario, but one we can do very little about at this point. Entirely of our own making of course, but they’re two very separate issues. I’m interested to know where you see AMN playing? His contribution offensively has never been good enough, and I’d hope that we’re not going to playing every game as we did against Chelsea and City (I.e. Sat with 10 men behind the ball). And he’s been awful whenever I’ve seen him play centre mid. Not… Read more »
This is bizarre. So we need to be loyal and keep a player simply because they work hard and are versatile? How are we ever going to improve if you expect the club to keep every player that meets that criteria? And he’s played 100 games and been at the club for years – we’ve hardly sold him at the first whiff of money – we’ve stuck by him. Besides, Ornstein has made it very clear that AMN wants to move on – should we still be loyal and keep him against his will?!
He played 2 decent matches in a highly defensive set up, he been regularly poor for the other 98 matches he’s played for us.
Sorry chap but gotta disagree with you there!
I think he has been quite inconsistent in those other matches. I was surprised how well he played in the two Cup matches. The fact that I was surprised–surprised even that Arteta picked him–tells us something, doesn’t it?
We played an ultra-defensive system and packed our box with bodies. AMN effectively played as a defensive interference utilising his pace.
Arteta skilfully used AMN one strength, his pace, other than that he’s not a very good footballer.
its a real low bar , because not many players performed well last season overall. i don’t think we will miss him , and i wish him good luck. i’m sure everyone is up in arms over this just because he came from the youth set up. if we had spent £10 mil on him from Southampton a few years ago, we would look upon this as decent business.
A real shame honestly. He was one of our most saleable assets this window, but would have still liked to have kept him. Hope he brings in enough to make it worthwhile in the long term.
I’m hearing £18m plus £2m in add-ons. If true, that is a joke of a fee
Would you be happy if we paid more for a player of similar standard?
If the roles were reversed, Wolves would have Arsenal pay more, even now in a deflated market. This is a brand-name talent going at a Walmart Great Value price.
I would hope we would buy players of a higher standard to be honest
AML is exactly the kind of player we would have purchased for $37M. Over the last decade, our dear club has proven to be terrible at selling and not particularly great at buying. Which is less than ideal. And when we have brought in world class players (like Ozil) we have failed to support them. Who is surprised that Partey’s national manager wants to steer him away from Arsenal? We wouldn’t play Ox at CM and want to see Matteo but Ceballos (who is about as agile as a Bombay donkey cart and not even 25% the player Matteo is)… Read more »
*sell not see
Funny how not many clubs seem to be interested in having Guendouzi, seeing as how he’s so good.
Come on mate, although you may have a point that we haven’t been the best at maximising value in the transfer market, at lease back it up with sensible arguments. Ozil is a joke – something went wrong with the guy’s head around the time of the World Cup and he’s been a busted flush ever since. We wouldn’t play Ox at CM because he was inconsistent and constantly injured (a trend that’s continued at Liverpool where you wouldn’t consider him an automatic starter, and he’s played plenty of games out wide). Matteo? Just wow. The guy looked great at… Read more »
Spot on Steve. Guen is literally our worst midfielder. Zero goals and 1 assist along with no positional awareness or emotional intelligence.
I laugh when people say he is worth 40m. He is worth half that and it’s very telling nobody besides Emery wants him. The sooner he is gone the better!
If this is to create squad space for Aouar or Partey, a good fee will do… means either of Chambers or Holding will be staying to fill the home grown quota… am sure Arteta knows best #COYG
Less than Lyon paid Angers for Jeff.
The Jeff didn’t have 100 first team appearences
Quite right, too. The decision to sell The Jeff was an atrocious one. There was no reason we needed to sell him, especially at a pittance.
Also, I know Chelsea are throwing around money (could it possibly be something to do with FFP being relaxed? hmm) but I still think prices will have been affected by Covid. No other huge deals seem to be in the offing (famous last words).
It was very weird that Emery didn’t even take a look at The Jeff. 1 pre-season game in which he scores a beauty and he’s shipped out. Didn’t understand it at the time and still don’t.
Probably due to the fact they sold hazard for 120m and had a transfer ban for a year. Means they have about 200m to play with most likely despite Covid.
Less. They paid 55MM or so for Pulisic.
No surprise that he’s (probably) going . We must offload players/reduce the wage bill to balance the books for those that have come in/are coming in – but nobody has gone yet! Reports say Arteta and co. have identified a dozen players to go – a staggering number if true and testament to the poor shape of the squad overall – so there could be a way to go. The interesting thing about this deal (if it goes through) will be the fee. Given the state of the market (pretty depressed), I don’t think it will be quite as generous… Read more »
This club has needed about a dozen players off it’s book for the last 3 seasons (maybe longer). About time we had the leader with the Juevos (more egg jokes, cause the crowd loves those) to do it…hopefully…
This is a complete lack of foresight by the hierarchy. Arsenal has two world class fullbacks ala Tierny and Bellerin. Kolasinach and Soares aren’t world class, Bayern has four. Ainsley is world class when he plays as a fullback either right or left, “FA cup is the pudding“. Plus he can cover in midfield, an area where we lack depth. I rate him above Willock and Guendouzi…
It was that moment when you said Ainsley is world class as a full back. Bordering on delusional will be a massive understatement.
World class is getting rather liberal these days…We have one definite world class talent (Auba), a few borderline (Laca, Leno, Martinez?? – Alright I like him a lot – but he was at a world class level post restart, and maybe Pepe if he could get consistent), a one former (Ozil). No one else really comes close, but we have some young talent that could get there (Saka, Martinelli, Tierny, and maybe Douzi – sucks, but he could still be that good – just not with Arsenal – he burned that bridge).
it all depends on your definition of world class, as it is notoriously difficult theory to apply , but i don’t think KT or HB are world class yet , and AMN certainly isn’t world class. he had some decent games in those positions , but if you are comparing him to the best full backs on the planet , i will have some of what you are smoking please!
Bellerin world class wtf lol
Gone are the days where our squad was packed to the rafters with world-class talent even sitting on the bench.
We have a lot of potential on our books, that’s certain: Pepe, Tierney, Saka, Bellerin, Willock, Saliba (hopefully!)
At one point I thought Holding might be capable of getting there, even suggested he could be captain!
In terms of who is genuinely world-class, Aubameyang, Leno and Lacazette.
Time will tell though of course!
Playing rather fast and loose with the “world class” tag.
Useful player but also not an out and out starting 11 player. If we want to bring in better players some of ours will have to be sold. Sometimes it’s not the ones you most want gone it’s the ones you get offers for. Sounds like it’s good business if it’s £20m. I mean if we offloaded Torreira, Guendouzi, and Laca for between £20-35m each we could potentially raise £90m to rebuild the squad.
I think this is the correct view. He was mediocre in a very bad midfield, fine as a backup FB but didn’t want to play there. Take the money, improve the first XI.
Is he 36 years old and entering the last 6 months of his contract or something?
The covid related financial crunch seems to affect the selling fee of Arsenal players only. Nobody is quoting lesser price for any player we want. Clubs are quoting huge amount, not a penny lesser than their release clause.
Everybody knows that Arsenal are desperate
Arsenal seem to be desperate all the time.
All the best to AMN, but I seriously hope we rake the Wolves over the coals on price….
Damn. Was really hoping to keep him. I think we will miss his quality and versatility. He’s much better than Kolosinac and Soares and you would assume only going to get better and sell for more in another year or two.
If we get 25m+ for him and invest in top top quality in the middle of the park then I guess it makes sense though 🙁
Played well under Arteta, but there’s only on Arteta…
Interesting how effective he would be another manager.
Think penny has dropped on selling academy stars, wouldn’t suprise me for one of nelson and willock to go as well in the next 12 months
Most likely depends on how Arteta ultimately views those 2 players. Does he see them as talented enough to be key cogs in where he wants to go? If so then have to think they stay. If he doesn’t view them as more than squad players then he’ll sell them if he can get a decent price.
We give him away for £20m, keep Kolasinac and sign Soares permanently? What “Twilight Zone” business is this?.?.?
It’s Arsenal’s 5 keys to success: buy high, sell low, play out of position, wish for the best, repeat.
HUGE mistake! I am gutted. He is a great player. Young and versatile that can only get better. No way we will find anyone better than him for that money. Its insane
Very sad he is leaving. He was playing poorly and worked hard to get back into the team and has grown into a fan favourite. Everyteam needs a player that is versatile and AMN is one of them. He grew on me especially in the FA cup finals and would be a loss to the team and fans. I wish him well in his new endeavours and he would always be a gunner for life ???
Sell high. Hopefully the fee ends up higher, but with a fully fit squad he goes back into rotation and his fee drops. Reality.
Think he could end up a really decent prem player, he’s not going to do that if he isn’t playing enough, which he isn’t for us.
If true, its a good move for him to a decent club.
Shame to see him go though.
Get rid, not good enough, and use the money to improve our starting eleven.
The way people on here are going on you would think we were selling Messi, not a bit part player who can’t get a game for a mid-table side.
I’d be sad to see him go. He’s one of my favourite players just for being Arsenal through and through.
Good luck to him.
Good thing this is impossible deal to happen because Raul was the one behind this! Another L for the jurnos and bloggers. Ofc none of them will mention Raul now, when that was the ONLY reason why AMN was being sold.
Can we still blame Kia?
If we’re selling AMN at only £20m, that’s seriously a huge joke, when it’s rumoured we’re paying £30m for the incoming Gabriel…
All the best to you, Ains. I’m afraid the higher-ups at Arsenal have done you dirty. ?
Could be a great move for him if he’s guaranteed a starting spot. But 20 mil?? Liverpool would get that double that for him plus extras!
I think Arsenal are reluctant to sell him, but the player’s eagerness to play regularly and our need of fresh cash makes it happen.
Let’s hope the money well spent! *wink Aouar or Thiago
It’s a big shame and will miss him. If it was up to me I will convince Barcelona to come get their boy Bellerin and make AMN my starting right back and give him the number 2 shirt. But it’s not up to me. AMN is the best right back at the club right now. I hope Cedric push Bellerin to do better they both look very injury prone I wonder who will cover for them when they both get injured. A serious mistake. But if I was AMN so young with a lot of potential I will look for… Read more »
That’s a relief, I was worried we might kill the career of promising youngster Cedric Soares
£20m feels a little low compared to the market in previous years, particularly when you think that he has 3 years left on his deal. But… This is a very different market – Gabriel is costing us less than £30m, which indicates how real clubs have to get. We all know we need to sell to buy. If this £20m helps us elsewhere then we may be better for it. This is someone who is not a starter for Arsenal and has never nailed down a first team position and that’s under 4 managers. We’re hardly losing an essential player.… Read more »
That’s too bad as he is a youth product. I get the sense it’s a mixture of him wanting to have regular football in his favoured position (fair play to him) and the desire for the club to have some incoming cash. 20 million is a good if not great return.
This is decent business for a squad player. I know some are b*tching at the fee already (as if every sale is going to be Iwobi to Everton). A bit of a risk for him with Wolves out of Europe to get games in but wish him the best.
Very sad to see him go, but I’m really excited about these names we’re being linked with.
Sad 🙁
The price is rediculous we should be charging as much as we did for iwobi
I think his entourage and family remind me if anelkas sadly he is been poorly advised and will always be talented but have issues.
He could easily be our 1st choice RB/RWB. Also provides good cover at LB/LWB and CM
He’s worth way more to us than £20m. £30m at least
Not really fair on Cedric himself, but I really resent us signing him. He’s a known quantity and proven to be barely good enough for the PL, let alone Arsenal – slow, ageing and injury prone with no real outstanding attributes. A signing that is dodgy and/or lazy as hell.
And we’re losing a talented, athletic and young academy graduate who is already twice as good for below market value because of it
And in other news, Mari and Soares have signed permanent deals with us.
The thing is Mari *might* be good enough. If he fails, there is always the excuse that our scouts (i know) saw something exceptional in him that just didn’t translate to the PL. That it was just a relatively inexpensive calculated gamble that didn’t pay off
Cedric is a known quantity in the PL though. We already knew he was nowhere near good enough. Which makes his transfer look very dodgy to me, especially considering the agent and length of contract. It’s a signing anyone with a bit of sense already knew would fail before it happened
I’m not knocking either of them until I’ve seen them perform. We’ve seen a bit of Soares but not enough to judge him yet. Not IMO anyway.
The whole agent thing surrounding these two transfers is another matter of which I’m not happy. That Kia feller is a slimey as they come and with a mouth way too lose for my liking. The way he talked about our club as if he more or less owned it. Puke worthy.
You know what, no one could have known how good Gabrielle Martinez is until he was given a chance. As for me i would forget about Dani Cebellos and concertrate on ANM by giving him a chance too. I guarantee you he can perform better. Please dont sell him…He is far better than Cedrick and Bellerin combined….Addiotionally we will be competeing in 4 fronts next year. Arteta should keep him and try him also in Mid field.
Balls. We’ll regret this
Like it or not this would be selling to a team we will be competing against for European football next season. That price seems very low. Good business for wolves.
Such a shame. No need for either him or Torreira to go.
Oh well, at least AMN hasn’t gone to that bunch of trophy dodging losers up the road.
Another ‘Gnabry’ story loading…☹️
AMN’s preferred position is central midfield, not on the wing.
In the article I link to, he literally says he wants to be a winger.
why move on AMN? This guy showed he can be relied on in the big games. I’d rather we move on Eddie, Nelson and Willock. Wolves will be getting a good player and £20m doesn’t seem a lot when you consider Liverpool got £20m for Solanke somehow.
Liverpool got £20 million for Solanke in a very different market.
We can’t compare then to now because everyone is trying to save money. I would be surprised if we saw anyone sign for any club for over £70million for a while and that seems a lot now.
I would have sold Bellerin and kept AMN as a RB.
I think Hector hit his ceiling with us.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating etc, let’s see if he gets his wish when he leaves and plays where he thinks he is best at and then we’ll see if we made the right decision or not?
I don’t want the club to sell him but if Arteta really wanted him to stay, bearing in mind he’s contracted to us until 2023, then I think he’d stay.
I guess one way of looking at it is that his transfer could help pay for us get Ceballos back…
To sell AMN and Hector and go for Cedric seems absurdely ridiculous to me. Two relatively young athletic players brought up in the academy traded for an injury proned player pushing 30.
AMN showed signs of improvement but only over a small handful of matches. As mentioned many times previous, fullback IS his natural position. He has been at it for 4 seasons plus now. Yet some people still care to imagine he is a ‘midfielder’. He was too careless to be in that position. Absolutely daft. I imagine we will weigh whomever of Kolasinac or AMN fetches the best price, and sell the other. Makes no sense to sell Bellerin. Cedric is not proven better, AMN can play there but we got Cedric in in the first place bc Arteta was… Read more »
Is that why we got Cedric though? I assume it was purely a Joorabchian ploy. “If you take this guy I’ll get you Willian”. Or something to that effect.
Wish him well. He started the FA Cup, and we won. That’s forever. I don’t really worry much about these decisions with Arteta. It’s not simply his football brain, but it’s also he’s willing to be ruthless. Think of it this way: Mikel got two great performances out of AMN, out of position on the left, while he knew he was on the way out. That’s solid. Or think of it this other way: Mikel’s man tactics makes me confident that anyone we trade away…will be someone we pocket when we see them again. Think Giroud in the FA cup,… Read more »