Arsenal: 2 surprise Maitland-Niles midfield replacements

Arsenal are well underway with their January transfer business as they prepare to trim, and hopefully bolster, their squad this winter ahead of the second half of the season.

It’s never a wise course of action to head into a transfer window with big expectations. Equally, one should never underestimate what can happen in the dizzying world of football transfers with twists and turns aplenty.

Known for being notoriously difficult to navigate through in with clubs either unwilling to sell their players or holding interested parties to ransom, Arsenal have still managed to get some business done early.

So far, it’s players on the way out.

Arsenal: 2 surprise Ainsley Maitland-Niles midfield replacements in the January transfer window that Mikel Arteta could make

Folarin Balogun will complete a six-month loan deal to Middlesbrough shortly, but the standout departure is Ainsley Maitland-Niles’ move to Roma until the end of the season.

Flying to Italy on Thursday to put pen to paper on a deal that has been agreed between the clubs, despite Roma’s efforts to include an option to buy in the move Arsenal have preferred to keep the deal as a simple loan deal. Their reasons for that will stem from them believing after six months of football they can drive a bigger price for Maitland-Niles than the €10m Roma were willing to spend.

One needn’t be a maths professor to work out how many senior central midfielders that leaves Mikel Arteta with. Now boasting just Sambi Lokonga and Granit Xhaka in their ranks while AFCON takes place, all it requires is one injury or Covid case to blow the whole situation open.

Internally there are fixes, and Charlie Patino’s name will be heavily mentioned, and with no known targets being pushed for this window, could Arsenal spring a big surprise or two to fill the void left by Maitland-Niles?

Two names come to mind.

Arsenal Sign Jack Wilshere on Short-Term Deal

It would be like something out of a Hollywood film. Or, coincidentally, a long-running series on a popular online streaming site that feeds on the drama and the narrative. Makes you wonder.

Jack Wilshere has been training with Arsenal’s first team since the beginning of October and the comments from members of the squad stating how he’s the best trainer in the group continue to stir up some interesting theories.

Allowing one of only three senior midfielders in the group to leave at a time where it looks like Mohamed Elneny and Thomas Partey will be unavailable for five matches – including two Carabao Cup semi-finals and a North London Derby – is such a risky ploy to take. There is no way the club would weaken itself without something in mind.

There was also a comedic advert put out by Wilshere and a betting company about needing to find a club, and as completely radical as it sounds bringing Wilshere back into the Arsenal fold having been previously training with a second division Italian side, it’s unavoidably present.

A short-term deal, perhaps? A pay-as-you-play contract that sees him act as cover on the bench for games against Nottingham Forest and Burnley?

Thursday, January 6, also just to happens to be the 10-year anniversary of Thierry Henry returning to north London on a two-month loan deal. How about Sol Campbell’s return 11 years ago on a deal until the end of the season? Obviously the strategy is different under a very different manager, but it couldn’t happen. Could it?

No. It couldn’t.

But could it?

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