According to David Ornstein Arsenal are in talks with Everton over Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
The Gunners have a plethora of right-back options, and the 24 year old looks likely to depart the Emirates for Goodison Park.
🚨 Everton in talks with Arsenal for a deal to sign Ainsley Maitland-Niles on loan with an option to buy. Offer submitted, Arsenal considering internally before responding. Talks ongoing. Versatile 24yo under contract at #AFC until 2023 @TheAthleticUK #EFC https://t.co/Ayw5mmbm7k
— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) August 30, 2021
Maitland-Niles left on loan last season in order to play in his favoured midfield position, and so far this season has made two substitute appearances.
Ainsley has played 123 first team games for Arsenal, scoring three goals.
Ok this is great, getting rid of one of our 300,000 RBs before the window closes. Trippier on loan maybe?
Fuck that shit.
We’ve got enough losers already – Xhaka, Willian, Cedric, Elneny, Runarsson.
When it comes to Spuds, Trippier is no Sol Campbell.
F*ck Trippier. Haven’t we learned our lessons already with Willian?
We did but does Arteta?
Jack clearly hasn’t
How has it taken all this time to move on from AMN? He clearly told everyone, even the press, that Arsenal can sell him if they don’t play him where he wants. He should have been first to go, followed by Willian and Bellerin. This club is beyond incompetent.
He didn’t say “if they don’t play him where he wants”. This is your own invention.
If – a big if – it’s a loan, with reasonable wages, then I do see Trippier as a low risk move and possibly worth taking with around 30 hours of the window left.
He’s miles better than Cedric and Chambers.
Internally of course we could just keep Bellerin.
I was already tired of watching elneny and xhaka. Now the added burden of watching chambers at RB.
I am pretty sure arsenal will now sign player like lichsteiner and make us crave for chambers at RB 😓
Christ i’d genuinely forgotten about lichsteiner
I try to remember Dixon, Lauren, Sagna……the good old days.
Don’t see how a loan with an option to buy helps us out. Nominally our best right-sided wingback (and it looks like we need three at the back), so losing him now for negligible income to help us fix that part of the squad has no benefit.
Clubs are using the difficult market as an excuse. Everton have Usmanov. He can pay £15m for AMN. Look at Roma, said they couldn’t afford Xhaka and then spent £34m on Tammy.
We are being played. Again. And Edu needs to go.
Roma only needed Xhaka as a squad player. You think JM is a fool?
They wouldn’t commit 15M quid for xhaka because they like the rest of world football except Mikel Arteta and his mate Edu know he’s not worth 15M quid.
Talking about Xhaka, even the couple of beloved players we have, could have gotten the same red card. It can happen to Saka, ESR etc. Fans are exaggerating on this.
Xhaka sits at one red card every 41 games. That is 7th worst all time in EPL (and he had that reputation when we signed him).
Xhaka also has daylight between him and the next closest player in terms of outfield players making errors leading to goals:
https://sport.optus.com.au/articles/os21684/arsenal-burnley-premier-league-analysis-reaction-xhaka-arteta
Add to that his league leading 5 EPL penalties since he arrived in the league (and this was only until 2019):
https://twitter.com/squawka/status/1168218046655344645?lang=en
But yeah, what a passer eh…well as long as he’s given an age to dwell on the ball, because we all know if pressed, he’s useless.
When Xhaka was signed, everybody here was praising his poor disciplinary record in Germany, and saying we need someone like him who gets stuck in🤣
You mean #FakeToughGuy Granny Xhaka?
😂😂 it’s so painful ain’t it. I’m doing me best to detach with love as it’s been the longest relationship in my life.
except we didn’t get played because we didn’t sell Xhaka for the price they offered. What is the alternatieve? Are you suggesting we should have got played by them?
With the current structural issues reverting to back 3 with Gabriel, Holding and White is best we can do since we do not have a RB. In this system, Niles can play and he is actually good in covering distance and closing down. Unless there is someone coming in, there is no sense in sending him out. If we need to send someone out, that ought to be Cedric!
The only thing you left out was AMN wants to play midfield not RWB or RB and that’s why he wants out.
I hate to agree with fat Sam but he was managing him last season and felt AMN should have a change of heart and play where we ask him to
Actually I believe AMN is a big loss but if he doesn’t want to play there then that’s his issue not Edu’s. Ofc we are underselling our young players consistently and we pay the expereinced ones to go hence your conclusion is correct
He is one of the deadwoods. Best at youth level.
A loan could be a sensible move. Say he has a blinder at Everton, and say next summer for whatever reason we change our manager, the new manager may wish to integrate AMN back into the squad.
The boy earned a call-up to the national team and Arteta got him here from that position.
This tells you everything you need to know.
AMN, auba, bellerin, Willian, martinelli, Leno have all become worse players under Arteta. How long are we going to let him fuck up our players? Saka, smith-rowe, partey et al are all at risk whilst he’s in charge.
Always seemed a weird one to me. At Arsenal since the age of 6 apparently so you’d think he be happy to play any position he was asked. As far as I’m aware he didn’t set the world alight in midfield while on loan last season…but hey ho, good luck to him.
I know a couple of West Brom fans and they said he played well enough, though was somewhat outshone by Chelsea’s Connor Gallagher.
Bro, that Gallagher looks a proper player. Watched Crystal P v West Ham after our heavy thumping on Saturday and was impressed with him. Has the kind of engine that makes a midfielder valuable. Also saw Benrhama and shook my head at how we decided to sign Willian instead.
This makes me really sad, surely he’s no worse than half our midfield? We’ll sell Ainsley for a pittance and spuds will buy Bissouma, we’ll carry on with a permanently injured Partey and a red card Xhaka as a midfield. What a complete fuck up this club has become.
We have been like this very long time. Apart from the short lived Santi-Coq pairing, I can not think of a decent central midfield pairing in the last decade. Even Santi-Coq pairing was accidental….
*for a very long time
I kinda enjoyed Arteta-Ramsey in 2013. Porous, but entertaining.
Poor Flamini always gets forgotten in the Ramsey/Arteta partnership narrative. 2013-14 – all our metrics (goals scored, goals conceded, points per game) were better when Flamini played.
Arteta was average at best. Always the safe sideways pass, and hardly penetrated a defence. He was a slower, slight upgrade on Elneny, who Everton got the best out of as a right winger.
Nonsense. He was a good player. A few steps down from Cesc, but way above most that have followed. I lost count of how many steps down we took to get to Xhaka, but we must have taken a fall somewhere as we’re are battered and bruised…. and shit.
He was a good player. It’s just after his first good season with us, Arsene decided to move him deeper which just didn’t work at all.
Arteta was mostly a No10 or No8 for Everton. If he played RW it was seldom and likely due to injuries elsewhere.
Arteta’s failing for us was more about Wenger refusing to buy a proper DMF to clean up behind him. Had we done that, we likely would have seen a slightly more successful Wenger in his last decade.
We have not had a proper DMF since Gilberto left. Flamini (1st stint) and the Coq cameo for half a season has been the closest we got.
I remember his best football as a right winger. I’m sure he only got moved into the middle after Saha and Yakubu were both injured, and they had to play with no strikers
Im hazy on Arteta’s arrival in the PL but he spent the vast majority of his Everton career at CM. Maybe did allow him (more than others) to roam though.
*Maybe *Moyes
Fabregas and Flamini.
Last they played for Arsenal was in 2008!
Yep 2008. I was on holiday and saw it on espn that Flamini was leaving. I couldn’t believe it was happening, after that season of him, Hleb and Fabregas playing so well together
Oh Santi. What a player you were.
Santi for sure was my favourite Arsenal player of the last decade 🙂
He was the perfect antidote to losing Rosicky. Now at least we have ESR in that vein. A ways to go to reach their level, but he has a lot of similarities to little Mozart in particular. Oh Rosicky and Sanit, what players you were.
Mancity away in 2015…….
Surely AMS is better than Cedric? (My mum is better than Cedric)
Highly doubt that 😁
Why? Have you seen his mum play?
AMN doesn’t want to play RB…..
I think Everton want him as a RB….
Even more appalling we can’t find use of him as a RB here. Surely better than our current options.
Also how many better central
midfielders do we have – 2 at most?
Pretty sure that is where Everton will put him. Interchanging with Coleman throughout the campaign.
this makes me sad on multiple levels
Well, this will indeed be a shame if it goes through. That said, it’ll be a fresh start for the player and who wouldn’t deny him that? For the life of me, I cannot understand his aversion to making that Right Back place his own, but there you go. You can’t force the guy to play in a position that he doesn’t want to play in. This maybe leaves us the opportunity of signing another right back, but quite frankly whoever we sign or let go means Jack shit when compared to how it will effect Arteta and his dysfunctional… Read more »
I hear you. I am unable to understand his logic. Then i remember the issue with his Mom. I think he is being badly adviced. He could be an absolute certain to play every game at RWB. Think of Lauren who happily accepted his new role and was solid for years under AW, ditto Toure. And he can forget about England ambitions in Midfield as well
“Obviously I do prefer playing central midfield but that is not to say I don’t want to play right-back or that I’m not going to do the job there if the manager asks me to.
“If the manager says to me ‘Ains you gotta go in goal this game I will put the gloves on and I am ready to rock n roll’.” – Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Why does it keep being repeated that he refuses to play there?
Very good point. Example of a belief repeated until becomes gospel.
I think the longer term issue is more about his ambition to play a different position and whether it will distract his focus of being the best RB he can be?
My point exactly.
How dare you bring in facts
Michael Thomas started at right back and worked his way into midfield. Ainsley a similar player, just didn’t commit to holding down a place in the team and waiting for his chance in midfield.
*would
Didn’t he turn 25 the other day?
How does that work?
24 + £1
They can have their Maitland if we get Calvert Lewin on loan with option to buy. Now that would be interesting
He is probably the best right back we have. With a run in the team and good coaching he could save us money. Sadly, he doesn’t want to be a right back. He needs to be careful what he wishes for though, because he is a best serviceable as a central midfielder and never going to be at a bigger club than Arsenal. We really need to be trying to ship out Chambers, Holding and Bellerin because they have lingered for years, having flattered to deceive.
everton wants him as rb
Nelson, Maitland Niles, Martinelli, Nketiah, Balogun. All of their Arsenal futures depend on the system Arteta wants to play and their suitability to the positions within that system. What that system is god only knows (certainly Arteta doesn’t seem to know). That is not a good position for a club to be in when making recruitment and retention decisions. But hey, this is a club whose owners don’t seem to care. Case in point being, they are okay with that same directionless manager loading the club up with £100+ million pounds of debt in the form of transfer fees for… Read more »
What would be your model for success should we bin off Arteta?
Not trying to start anything here, but what’s the current model with arteta? I genuinely don’t know.
I doubt he himself knows
Oh I don’t see what Arteta is trying to achieve either.
Man City lite I think.
I’m really disappointed that 2 years in, we’re still making excuses for why it isn’t working.
Pre season and the first three games, the lack of identity has been terrifying
I dunno, West Brom second 11, we were on fire 😂😂
I think it’s pretty obvious what Arteta wants. (Please, I am not saying he has achieved it, or even come close.) That is effectively a 4-3-3 (or a 4-1-2-3, if you like) with a Partey-type player who receives the ball on the turn from the keeper or centre halves and moves it quickly to the Odegaard/Smith Rowe types who interchange all the time, and can carry it forward or pass to a fluid attacking triad (Saka and Pepe on the outside but cutting in, an Aubameyang slicing into the box) or to the overlapping (and underlapping) fullbacks. So not exactly… Read more »
Not sure about the 4 3 3, he bought a keeper, a cb who’s supposedly suited to a back 3, a wing back, a midfieder who seems suited to playing in a 2 man midfield, and odegaard who seems suited to a 4 2 3 1.
Recruit Luis Campos as Technical Director and Paulo Fonseca as Manager.
Campos is dodgy.
I reckon most people are sick of the current situation with good reason.
Do you think replacing the manager is enough? Not picking holes, just genuinely interested what would happen next.
I think the minute we sack Arteta we have to accept we are a mid table club. (Of course we are mid table with him too)
We don’t have the infrastructure or the financial power to be anything else. Not while the Kroenkes are in power.
Arteta was a Hail Mary appointment. The ball is being fumbled out of play as we speak
Arteta and edu out, cool, cool they arent looking like they’re doing the business…at all, but with Kroenke still making the big decisions on appointments and having Vinai and Tim Lewis doing the face to faces, Similar mistakes will arise again. No doubt. No one has the right experience or competency for their positions throughout.
We are rotten from top to bottom and the top must be bought the fuck out or…Newcastle seems like an appropriate comparison.
I wish we could De-Age Lauren or Sagna or Both
We’ll get a stop gap RB replacement in Jan and if Hector, and miraculously Cedric are gone by summer, that is when we’ll sign a proper replacement. So until enjoy more Cedric and co.
by miraculously you mean mysteriously?
I would take luznhey or eboue over the shower we have at the minute.
AMN doesn’t want to play right back & Bellerin wants out. We have quantity, but nobody capable of playing RB with any decent level of competence. If we don’t sign a right back before the transfer window shuts, I’d consider it negligent and / or reckless by the 2 stooges. Not only will we continue to be highly vulnerable down that side, we’ll have no decent support for whoever plays on the right wing.
Cool, change the optional buy to compulsory and that’s a good start. Then get in a RB who’s a RB 👍🏻.
I would keep him and play him more often that not. We need legs in midfield pronto and his versatility is welcome. We need to keep homegrown players as well. I don’t understand what he’s got to do to get a game with the shite we’re beigg subjected too wekk in week out. He’s still young enough to develop and improve. The mind boggles.
My suspicion is that Everton are interested in him for RB/RWB rather than CM, and in that case I don’t think the move would make much sense for him. Could be wrong though.
Allegedly we’ve now asked AMN to stay, and Everton do see him as a right back option.
Should be our first choice right back and back- up central midfielder after Partey ( never fit) and Lakongo
So should not sell or loan unless we are buying a replacement
Never get it with ANM. Outstanding in semi final and final of FA Cup
when we last won it
Arteta will be out of a job in a few weeks, it would make sense to keep our younger versatile players to see if the new manager has a place for them.
Reading the really good and ‘common sense’ points of my fellow Gooners always baffles me that the dicks in charge of our once glorious club don’t see it that way.
How do they not see the slow and average liability that is Xhaka?
How do they not see that MA has had enough time and needs to go, and that ‘the project’ will see us drop so far behind and into mid-table that even if it does work we’ll be playing catch-up for years?
How do they not see that Edu’s recruitment is both shocking and detrimental to our club?
He is our best combination of an attacking and defending right back that we have now and to loan or sell him while keeping Chambers, Cedric and Bellerin makes no sense at all.
He just posted in IG that he wants to go where he is wanted and where he can play and @ arsenal in the process.
Surely he can play ahead of the guys we have seen? I hear he doesn’t want to play RB but not sure what to believe now. Something seems strange here.
I’d miss his penalties. Irreplaceable
When you sit on the top of the food chain, you buy players that are on or near their peak, use their services for å short period and sell them on for less than you paid. When the team underperform, this loss increases. Still, you must absorb them and move on.
Maitland-Niles is probably good enough for most teams in the European top leagues. But we keep Kolašinac and Chambers?
If Everton want him, it should be at least an obligation to buy next summer, we shouldn’t do an option, or straight loan
Not sure why he can’t get a game ahead of Cedric though
Why do teams always leave things this late?
AMN on Insta. “All I wanna do is go where I’m wanted and where I’m gonna play”
Hearing we are refusing him a move to Everton, because Arteta and Edu have screwed the pooch.
See how it turns out, but more shite heaped on their heads wont surprise me. How this club, no matter the changes, can continue making such shite decisions is beyond me.
#Kroenkeout – then the rest of em.
Surely at this point we should be making Ainsley our first choice right back? With Bellerin/Chambers as deputy as neither are consistent enough to be first choice.
It seems there is suggestion that Maitland-Niles is happy to play at right back/right wing back and has not asked to play in midfield this campaign.
Cedric needs to stay very far away from the line up, and I think a back line of: Tierney While Gabriel Maitland-Niles is a good shout.
Increasingly obvious that there is an unsettled dressing room
Problem of managing modern day overpaid impatient players or Arteta not being able to manage different personalities?
A crying shame. He deserved more.
With hindsight this comment section is a fascinating read.