Arsenal drop major January midfield transfer hint

With news of Wolves successfully having their appeal heard to postpone Tuesday’s match away at Arsenal, it means 2021 can only finish on a high for the Gunners.

Four straight wins in the Premier League keeps Mikel Arteta’s side in the top four as their fellow league rivals continue to have games in hand, leaving six days to go until the visit of Manchester City on January 1. So, of course, plenty of focus will shift towards the incoming transfer window.

Well, at least it will for the supporters anyway.

And the overwhelming majority of them are having their eyes peeled over the winter following the news that Ainsley Maitland-Niles will be allowed to leave the club on a loan deal with an option to buy.

Arsenal drop major January midfield transfer hint with decision to let Ainsley Maitland-Niles join Roma on a loan with option to buy deal

Roma are set to finally secure the signature of an Arsenal midfielder with Jose Mourinho earmarking the 24-year-old as someone to come in and aid his side’s Serie A plight. With AFCON taking part around the same time, master mathematicians have punched the numbers and concluded that this deal leaves Arsenal with….two senior central midfielders left.

Only Sambi Lokonga and Granit Xhaka will be around for Arteta to select from, in a month that is set to see the Gunners play six matches across three competitions in 22 days. With injuries an unavoidable possibility and Covid cases a seeming inevitability, allowing Maitland-Niles to leave can mean only one thing: someone is dipping their toes into the transfer market.

It can only be. It would be staggering if they were diving head first into this unprepared.

Arteta has been unwilling to blood too many Under-23 stars even in Carabao Cup outings and with a cup semi-final and a grip on the top four, he won’t start handing Charlie Patino regular top-flight minutes.

There has to be a plan in place and therefore the only conceivable conclusion is that someone has already been lined up to come in and plug the gap. Maitland-Niles will likely be allowed to leave late in the window as even three midfielders is a risky ploy over that period – yet with this already looking wrapped up, perhaps not – especially since one of them will need time to adjust to the Premier League.

Or not, if they’re signed from within the division, but they will nevertheless require time to settle in.

This move is a fantastic one for Maitland-Niles who will get to experience a new league and country in a team where he has some English faces to help him settle in. For Arsenal, they move on a player who they feel can be improved upon in the transfer market, or internally, and will scoop £600k as a loan fee and around £8.5m if the option to buy is accepted.

It’s a brave decision, though. It would be catastrophic to sanction this deal without a new recruit lined up, and given who impressive the work was over the summer, supporters will have faith in their club to pull of another clever piece of business.