Arsenal make vital Ainsley Maitland-Niles transfer decision

Ainsley Maitland-Niles Will Barely Play This Season

With Takehiro Tomiyasu taking Bellerin’s place in the squad as the first choice right-back, and with Chambers and Cedric also due to stay, the best Maitland-Niles can hope for is second choice in that position. Even Nuno Tavares has played there ahead of him.

Still, with the other two being selected ahead of him already this season, will one outburst on social media change the manager’s mind?

As for midfield, he’s fourth or fifth choice when everyone is fit. Where his opportunities may come is during AFCON when Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are away on international duty, but even in those circumstances it will be Xhaka and Sambi as the starting pair.

Arsenal are frighteningly weak in that central area. When Partey’s inevitable next injury strikes there will be two reliable options only in the Swiss and Belgian midfielders. It’s worrying.

Yet even with all that there doesn’t appear to be anywhere for Maitland-Niles other than as injury cover and occasional cup rotation. Even with the latter point in mind, Arteta fielding a strong side in the Carabao Cup suggests he thinks strongly about lifting a trophy this term which limits Maitland-Niles’ options further.

None of which is to say that Everton’s offer should have been accepted. A loan deal with a weak buy option would merely be Arsenal potentially strengthening a Premier League rival. Just, for Maitland-Niles’ sake and for his employers, it’s going to be another season of limited playing time (he will still be needed in case of crisis) where in 12 months’ time he’ll have just one year left on his contract.

How happy is he going to be this season? Probably not jumping for joy, especially with it apparent he’s already disheartened by the whole situation by feeling the need to publicly tag his club begging for a move away.

This is another area of the squad that had to be dealt with sooner. Maitland-Niles was one of the few assets in the squad that didn’t fall into the ‘mediocre, high wage’ category. A failure of the window.