Arsenal: Ainsley Maitland-Niles officially a problem situation

Ainsley Maitland-Niles was making serious in-roads with Arsenal before this recent turn, and now all of a sudden, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain looks an apt comparison.

All this time, I’ve had one thing in mind regarding Ainsley Maitland-Niles—don’t let the same thing that happened to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain happen to him. Arsenal raised both of these guys to Premier League caliber players, now don’t make the same mistakes that lead to the Ox’s premature departure.

It looked like things were going to be different when Maitland-Niles seemingly embraced playing at rightback, but no matter what a player says outwardly, he knows what he wants out of his footballing career and despite the comfort he was finding at rightback, he wanted to play central midfield.

Now, he’s been moved to an auxiliary winger role where he only finds semi-regular game time in midweek fixtures, and even then, he’s still not playing his preferred position.

I always hated comparing Maitland-Niles to the Ox, but it’s impossible not to. They play the same position, they want to play the same position, and it doesn’t look like they will ever play the position they want to play.

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That’s why Ox left, and that’s why it’s looking more and more like Maitland-Niles will leave in the coming transfer windows.

You can only go so long feeling like you’re misunderstood as a professional. Or even if he does feel understood, feeling like his wishes will never be granted. It’s true, he tried valiantly to make rightback his home, but he’s not a rightback. And Hector Bellerin is. Even Calum Chambers is probably more of a rightback than Maitland-Niles, so now he’s third in line there and at least second in line at right wing.

What’s the upside there for him? A loyalty to the team? That’s mighty admirable if so, but all in all, the best thing for his career is to either move on or hope that Unai Emery gets fired soon enough to give the next manager a shot at fulfilling Maitland-Niles’ career goals. Not sure which seems more likely at this point, but there has to be movement somewhere, because it’s going to become a problem for him if he begins to exist solely as a last-ditch option.

That’s no way for a young man with such talent to be utilized.

It’s all about what’s best for Ainsley Maitland-Niles, and it’s hard to imagine that what’s best for him is midweek competitions as a fill-in right winger.