Thursday, March 28, 2024

Leicester eye Maitland-Niles, Gunners want Van Aanholt

Edu and Mikel Arteta are facing a busy final couple of days of the transfer window as they look to sort the future of fringe players and keep their eye out for possible back-up to Kieran Tierney.

According to The Athletic (£), Leicester City are keen on signing Ainsley Maitland-Niles for the rest of the season and the England international sees them as a more enticing option than relegation-threatened West Bromwich Albion.

David Ornstein writes that Brendan Rodgers could even push for an option to buy which could well tempt Arsenal who rejected a £15 million offer from Wolves last year. He also says Newcastle and Southampton are monitoring the situation.

Elsewhere, the Gunners are thought to be open to sending Reiss Nelson and Joe Willock out on loan while Liverpool, in desperate need of cover at centre-back, are said to have made contact with Shkodran Mustafi.

Asked about potential outgoings after last night’s 0-0 draw with Manchester United, Arteta said: “There are some conversations at the moment going on.

“I spoke with all the players about their own situation because they are all aware of the minutes that they’re playing and they want to improve their situation.

“I’m willing to help them, the club is willing to help them and we will try to find a solution at the end, but I don’t know whether it will be the case or not.”

As for incomings, The Mirror report that Arsenal are keeping tabs on Crystal Palace’s Holland international Patrick van Aanholt.

The Gunners are without left-footed cover at full-back and have been relying on Cedric to fill-in for Tierney in recent matches.

It’s said that Van Aanholt’s teammate Tyrick Mitchell, 21, was top of our shopping list but the Eagles won’t be letting their academy product leave this month.

Van Aanholt has considerable experience in England. He joined Chelsea from PSV as a teenager and played eight times for the Blues before sealing a permanent switch to Sunderland. Along the way, he went on loan to Coventry, Newcastle, Leicester, Wigan and Vitesse Arnhem. In 2017 he moved to Selhurst Park and has been a regular under Roy Hodgson.

The Gunners have also been linked with Southampton’s Ryan Bertrand who will be out of contract at Saint Mary’s in the summer.

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Ndouzi

If true, the AMN deal seems good. I would take it.

viegunner

i like AMN a lot, but i can’t tell whether ge’s good enough as my knowledge of football is limited (never played professional and know shit about positional skills). others seem at odds about AMN, i recall James from Gunnerblog seeing him as a starter at RB around spring.

whatever the case, Arteta is not playing him and Arteta’s likely to be around for some more time. i guess selling would be sensible

Johnny 4 Hats

I dunno. Do we really want to strengthen our direct opposition? Fuck Leicester man. Vardy and co are a bunch of dicks. They always beat us and chat shit about us.

It’s only an option. Rodgers could have a great player on the cheap for their title bid and then bin him off in the summer.

Both Newcastle and Southampton sound better options to me.

Man Manny

Leceister City is not our “direct opposition” this season, if I am being honest.
Aston Villa, Everton, Totts, West Ham, yes.
I suspect our best bet is between 6th and 8th this season.
I expect us to push top 4 next season.

Heavenly Chapecoense

To me, Arteta isn’t a manager who knows how to take the best out of players. Bellerin needs competition. He is not getting it because AMN was denied game time when in very good form.

David Hilliers Arm Cast

Funnily enough we got Odegaard because Madrid were reluctant to give a rival some help, and now we are in the same predicament.

ASH

AMN situation reminds me of Ox saga. A player who could never decide on where he wants to play. Even changing clubs have not helped Ox
Let’s hope AMN does better, and can decide his final position soon

Forget about it

Eh, what? Players don’t decide where they play, that is by definition, the manager’s job. The Ox plays at LP exactly where he always wanted to play at the Arsenal. I hope the young conservative goes on to great things not matter what. I really rate him, but he is young, there is a lot of competition and no matter who the player, they have to fit into the way the manager wants to play.

Comedian

Do we have enough quality depth in the squad? With Europa league coming up and still with Covid around barring any injuries , hope we are letting players leave on loan and hope we are not be looking to signing players past their peak for more than 6 months.

Heavenly Chapecoense

Arteta will sell AMN then exclude Cedric from the squad next season because we do not have enough homegrown players.

Hank Scorpio

That’s the problem. Most of the players that will be easiest to shift are home grown. They’ll need to be replaced by other such players either internally or by paying a premium.

Vaibhav Pandey

Tyrick Mitchell can develop into a superb LB under the wings of Tierney. I do hope we go back to Palaca again. Although they have tendency to jack up the prices too much.

fineas

doesnt make sense to sign tyrick he is only 2 years younger then tierney and tierney is much better then him so if he joins arsenal he will play little

Rich

Full back is the most physically demanding role in the team

Tierney can’t play every game, his injury record over the past few years has been extensive

We need genuine competition

Competition keeps players hungry and on their toes

Too much competition, kills competition

Too little competition, kills competition

Protectionism is all about self preservation, which produces stagnation

Healthy amounts of competition, equals progress and innovation

Competitive markets are nature’s change agent

Apply this economic principle to football squads

fmikael

Good one…., you… convinced me. I’m totally buying into this.

Daveo

Why would he play little? Tierney looks like a guy that Shouldnt be over played (injuries) and we have many competitions. If he’s good enough why wouldn’t we want him?

fineas

got a point there but who says tyrick would wants to get a smaller roll then tierney he is young and he needs game time

santi's thigh grab

Pretty sure KT has demonstrated he can’t play all of the PL and cups games. Don’t see a problem bringing in another young LB for the cup games and keep KT pushing forward to maintain his starting spot in the PL. Top four and title winning sides maintain quality when a starter gets injured. We are still working on the starting 11 but in terms of squad development we need to begin filling in the back up positions with quality.

GraeB

Can Aanholt, Bertrand – how many more Chelski castoffs do we need?

Aaron

You know not all Chelsea rejects are bad.. Salah, De Bruyne spring to mind, just saying…

Chelsea can’t spot the bad apples all that well

GraeB

Agreed but we didn’t sign Salah or KDB, we had Gallas, Luiz, Willian, Benayoun (and Cech as a credit).

Adrian Drum

I don’t get Luiz hate. He didn’t cost us fortune and he is not on big salary as well. He has been decent this season and one of the reason we won FA cup last year.

Canadagoon

Benayoun did an important job for us on that late season surge, he’s more of a credit than Cech was

Aaron

Gallas – when he arrived was a fantastic centre-back and the best we could hope when Cashley decided to f*ck off Luiz has been a mixed bag but he is loved by his mates and for whatever he cost us, he’s most certainly done his part Willian – so far, poorest of the lot but let’s not write him off just yet. His confidence looks shattered and he looks like he could trip on the ball anytime but lets give him this season. Benayoun and Cech – they played their part and no one complained when we signed them. Sometimes,… Read more »

Tapps

Leave Yossi alone – I loved him!

Tomaury Bischfeld

We were raving about Maitland Niles earlier last year. I remember he first came through as a central midfielder yet he’s hardly had an extended run of games there. I know he looked a bit off the pace in his last game and given he hasn’t held down a place anywhere, maybe it is time to sell. However, I think he could still go on to be a great player.

Dave

Good utility player but that means he needs multiple injuries ahead of him to get a game. He should go.

Qwaliteee

Multiple injuries happen – especially to us.

Every reason he should stay.

Hank Scorpio

They do but he’s not getting many opportunities. I’d like him to stay but he should move on for his own benefit

Heavenly Chapecoense

A couple of wins and draws and Arsenal fans start seeing players who aren’t good enough everywhere.

Fabulous

Exactly. Some of our fanbase are so entitled and presumptuous it’s embarrassing. We’re top 6 material at best and these goons want to sell a more than decent utility player. Funny that.

Daveo

His strength is defense. And he thrived in our very defense oriented team last year. Now we play more expansive and attack through fullbacks his end product (or lack of), touch and passing are exposing him a bit. I mean those attributes are limiting his game time at full back, and you want him to play at CM? He’s a solid player and a good defender, he’ll have a good career, but right now he isn’t good enough to start regularly for arsenal, he needs games, it’s looking like it’s time to make some money and move on and reinvest.

Heavenly Chapecoense

So how did he manage to become an English international?

Daveo

Michael ricketts.

Tapps

Because he was thriving in our defence orientated team. Try to keep up!

Greg in Seattle

Ceballos will be gone soon and Elneny’s ceiling/floor is well known at this point. I’d be having him deputize in the Partey role for non league games. To me that’s the only spot in midfield where he will be likely to carve a niche in the prem, unless he moves to a team lower in the table. That he provides injury cover at outside back is a bonus.

That said, having unhappy players around isn’t great so if he’s not convinced, cash out or go the loan route.

Dr. kNOw

I still hold out hope for Ainsley making it as a CM. Not only could he be good there (if he sorts his passing out), he also has no other prospects at the club since the move to a back four.

However, his alleged lack of application and professionalism is difficult to defend. To make matters worse, the thought of him going to a club like Leicester only for it to finally click in his head will be hard to stomach. Hopefully, it’s only a loan.

Andrew

“If he sorts his passing out” CM? Like saying someone would make a good keeper if only he could catch.

Greg in Seattle

Yeah, I have to think that the technical folks at the club have assessed that weakness and found that his other attributes do not outweigh it.

santi's thigh grab

He’s not a CM. He has played there for us once or twice and did not impress. Every PL player has to have a special ability and AMN’s is defensive recovery on a fast break, which makes him a very useful player to a mid table team that is getting overrun by a high flying attacking team, Leicester/Liverpool. Now that the manager has engaged balance in the team between midfield and attack, AMN has less value for AFC because we are relying on team play rather than the recovery efforts of a single player. While he has flashes of final… Read more »

Goonerrific

Come on blogs, you know you want to do the deadline day liveblog really!!

maxcat

Just getting away from Arteta would be worth it.

Kentmonkey

As Van Aanholt was in the Chelsea team when he was a teenager, does he count as homegrown?

If not, isn’t that going to cause us a problem if we let Ainsley go and get him in?

ChickPEA

After the departures of Özil, Sokratis, the loans of Saliba and Kola and the arrivals of Ødegaard and Ryan, selling Mustafi, even for a small fee, and loaning out AMN to a good club such as Leicester or So’ton, would make this a very successful window in my opinion. Getting an experienced back-up left-back and loaning one or two underused youngsters would bring it close to perfection.

Glad to see there seems to be some serious work going on at the club right now.

fmikael

IMHO if we indeed let AMN go out on loan, ideally we need to bring in on loan a competitive left footed left back, and depending on where Chambers’ progress is at behind the scenes, can even afford to let Mustafi go this window. Position/players on rotational basis. RB – Bellerin/AMN (Chambers/Mustafi as spare man) CB – Holding/Luiz/Mari/Gabriel (Chambers/Mustafi as spare man) LB – Tierney/Cedric (AMN/Saka as spare man) RB – Bellerin/Cedric (Chambers as spare man) CB- Holding/Luiz/Mari/Gabriel (Chambers as spare man) LB- Tierney/ New dude (Cedric/Saka as spare man) We got 19 or so matches (more if we progress… Read more »

Uwot?

Makes more sense to go for Mitchell.six months left on his deal & resale value clearly in the future.Let him slug it out with Tierney who is injury prone.This would be far far better.worth waiting for the summer to get if necessary.Cedric can do the job as cover temp.as he is proving.Excellent purchase.Has a good footballing brain.

Public Elneny

I don’t know too much about Tyrick Mitchell. But if he really is talented, Palace will be looking for 30m+ at least

We have a few starting xi positions that need to be fixed first – rb, cm, cf – and only a very limited budget to do it with. Spending that much on someone who is unlikely to be a regular starter doesn’t make sense to me, and being stuck behind KT won’t help his development

I’m happy with Van Aanholt as long as we don’t get fleeced in the contract negotiations

Public Elneny

Oh right, Mitchell has 6 months left on his contract – my bad

EddyF

What’s the long term plan at LB? Seems like there’s 3 options: 1) A succession of aging PL players to provide backup to Tierney (van Aarnholt, Bertrand)? Aged 28+, similar profile to Cedric at RB. 2) Bring in a youngster for cup games who can eventually challenge Tierney (Mitchell, etc.)? Aged <21. 3) Bring in another solid LB at their peak who can compete and rotate with Tierney? Someone aged 23-27. Tbh I’d be tempted to go for option 3 given Tierney’s injury problems. Maybe he’ll develop into someone who can play 50 games a season, but at the moment… Read more »

John

Makes me wish Nacho Monreal was available and a few years younger.

A Different George

He’s playing very well in Spain (based on ratings, haven’t watched the matches).

YaGunnersYa

We have enough players aged 28+ on well paying contracts as it is, which rules out option 1.

We have our U23 left-back, Tolaji Bola. Would be remiss to go for option 2 without giving a potential internal solution a try.

I see the appeal of option 3, but we may have other priorities to invest in the squad. A left-back on Tierney’s level (there are few and far between) could cost us northwards of £40,000,001. Our current backup options for Tierney are adequate if not spectacular.

santi's thigh grab

I wonder how far Joel Lopez is away from the first team.

Qwaliteee

I would keep him. An excellent and versatile squad player, who can operate in many positions.

If a club came in with stupid money, then maybe consider a sale, but you’re talking £40m upwards.

I wouldn’t sell him for anything less than 40.

Tomaury Bischfeld

In the post pandemic world, I don’t think there’s any way we’d get £40 million for him. His contract is up in 2 years so we either keep him for 2 seasons (he’ll resist) and let him go for nothing or we accept something for him now. It would be difficult to see him go for as little as £15m, as an international his real value at the moment has to be 20-30. But if it sorts out the situation efficiently better than letting it drag on and adds a bit to a summer rebuild.

loose_cannon

Don’t see why we should strengthen a European place rival tbh, and if he is only going on loan surely he should be going somewhere he’s guaranteed game time.

SarcasmB0t

Everything to do with AMN has made it clear that there never was a plan for what his role on the team was, much less for how he would be used.

Don’t we have people on very good money whose job it is to figure this stuff out?

Mentalista

Yes. Arsene; Emery; Arteta. Why don’t you apply for the job?

Thierry Bergkamp (non negotiable)

I can see already. Klopp turning Mustafi into one of the worlds best centre backs

jw1

I can see already. The Fool’s Gold Klopp sees in Mustafi. Every of his managers learns in the harshest terms.

Mustafi has personally binned a pair of CL spots for Arsenal (2017, 2019) by gifting points.

Jurgen? Thinks he’s The One who can perform the alchemy on Mustafi.

I can see already. A CL spot opening up this season.

DB10s airmiles

His alchemy really worked on the Ox after he accused wenger of mismanagement…..

A Different George

Mustafi is an extremely good centre half prone to terrible mistakes that, too often, outweigh his quality. Those mistakes are surely related to confidence, so it’s not impossible that a change of scene, a brilliant (and new) manager, and quality teammates could make a difference. I would not take that chance, but I’m not Klopp. I also think that Mustafi is poorly suited for playing with the sort of attacking fullbacks that are central to Liverpool’s style–like the old Barca who often left Puyol and Pique alone to deal with counters. But Mustafi is not Puyol (or Van Dijk).

Bubba

Couldn’t agree more with this.
Mustafi is incredibly talented but lacks concentration.
In a defensive rcb with a solid Lauren style Rb and some movement ahead of him he’d have no need for brain farts or heroic passes…
Always hoped he’d be Koscielny esq…right profile but not a patch on him. Glad it’s Chambers over Mustafi

Biggles

Sooner or later we’re going to have to start selling if we want to buy (you can’t go too long on loan deals only). That means actually picking out the players to be sold. The tendency though is to agree that we need to sell someone, but not “xyz”. But if not “xyz”, then who are we going to sell? AMN seems as good a candidate as any currently as there’s some interest in him apparently and we may be able to raise around £15 million, give or take. But his supporters need to identify who else can be sold… Read more »

Dee

I’ll give you a few, torreira, guendouzi, willock, nketiah, Bellerin. All have been given a fair run in the team IN THEIR FAVOURED POSITIONS. But either haven’t produced consistently or have had other issues. AMN has not been given a fair run in his natural position in Central Midfield, despite putting in some great performances when he has played the there (Against Man Utd and in the Europa league). He has been unfairly treated because of his versatility, and to be honesty he only stayed in the summer because Arteta promised him more game time, so in a way he’s… Read more »

Biggles

Fair enough, but I’m not sure how much interest there is in some of those. Torreira for example seems only to have one club interested and there’s been no figure mentioned for him. As to the others, who knows but we’ll see.

Rich

We should go for Omar Richards, completed 8 tackles yesterday

He’s out of contract this summer, we’d get him for a few million., he’s at a good age, good height, decent level of experience, and we can offer him plenty of minutes

There’s a lot of talent in the lower league’s

Matthew Cash at Villa should be a right back we’re looking at this summer

We’re now producing huge amounts of talent in this country, England will be a major threat at international tournaments for at least the next decade

Nainsley Aitland Miles

Presumably Richards is nailed on for Bayern. But if we could get Richards or – more likely – Mitchell on a free in the summer, that would be decent business. Free, young, home-grown. Saves the summer cash for midfield as Odegaard and Ceballos both go back to Madrid. Maybe Edu and Garlick will offer Madrid a package buy-one-get-one-half-price deal for them.

jw1

Matthew Cash at Villa.
Bring back Luke Ayling from Leeds.

A Different George

England is the team of the future. And always will be.

Arteta-tinted Glasses

Luiz, Willian…Van Aanholt, Bertrand. Did we go back to the Chelsea transfer list we made in 2012?

Gunner

Let’s not sell him please or let him go keep him but buy van aanholt for Mustafi

Okemeister

It’s telling that other decent teams seem to want AMN, but we got in Willian and Cedric in the couple of positions he may have tried to stake a claim on. Not knocking Cedric so
Much as I am Willian. But just wondering why we bought back up players in, when we had a flourishing AMN Simon our squad already. Funds that could have been better spent elsewhere.
Cedric wasn’t bought to be a first choice. Doing well now, but can’t help but feel it could have been AMN getting that game time and having the chance to improve instead.

Okemeister

AMN in our squad – not Simon. Darn auto correct

Qwertymonster

We should not repeat the same mistakes, of looking for short term fixes, as the last 2-3 seasons. Signing players who are old, will make an instant impact or signing them on loan does not help us. We have seen that happening. We have to sacrifice 2 years or so if we want to really become competitive again. That requires us as fans and the board as executives to approach a long term policy. Get rid of deadwood, conserve money and only buy what makes us better for the next 6-8 years. We should have a strict policy against buying… Read more »

Vonnie

Van Aanholt? Really scraping the barrel. Ainsley should go to Southampton for six months and then come back, Leicester are a horrible team. So many teams interested in him proves he’s a decent player, and we shouldn’t be getting rid of him to buy more old, uninspiring, probably overpriced, mid table rubbish.

Gunnerer

Bring back Nacho Monreal

MojoWillneny

I would prefer AMN go to West Brom. I would never trust Rodgers to play him enough at Leicester City for the loan to help his development. At West Brom, the livelihood of consistent game time is much higher and that, above all else, is what he needs. (Same with Nelson and Willock for that matter) Bottom line, we should not include a ‘right to purchase’ clause in any loan deal for these three players. Regardless of either the COVID market or playing time, by next summer the three of them will easily grow in market value to 20 million… Read more »

santi's thigh grab

AMN is a defensive recovery specialist. WBA would give him plenty of opportunity to showcase his special talent driving his selling price up for the summer.

konstantinos stathopoulos

PLEASE DO NOT SELL. AMN = WIJNALDUM

(…in abt 2-3 years, not now..smokes weed..late boomer..trust in ainsley..baller..supreme penalty taker,,, multi position..swiss army knife…one of arsene’s last of the mohicans..trust believe)

Santori

I’m not sure again Van Anholt at 30yrs given a contract is a terribly great idea. To me AMN is developing albeit its getting late in the chance window for him. If he impresses on loan, we need to find a spot for him. Cedric for all his recent good form is still not a good answer to a Bellerin departure. The Portugese is injury prone and pushing on 30yrs too. Getting in a replacement for Bellerin – Sure we may mint some money selling him but that goes pretty much back into the replacement, considering how poor we have… Read more »

Santori

Looks like Willock done to Newcastle. Good luck.

AMN likely to Brummies. Makes sense, don’t want to be sending him to one of our rivals like Everton.

We will have to be careful with enough numbers for home Grown :

Non HG – Leno, Ryan, Runnarson, Cedric, Luiz, Gabriel, Mari, Xhaka, Partey, Elneny, Odegaard, Ceballos, Pepe, Willian, Laca, Auba

HG – Bellerin, Tierney, Chambers, Holding, ESR, Saka, Nkeitah
+ Martinelli is non HG but under 21 so qualifies.

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