✍️ OFFICIAL Ainsley Maitland-Niles (Out)

[HairSprayGooners]

Thats all well and good but what about the HG rule!

You can have any amount of HG players you want as long as you have just 17 foreign players. It isn't really an issue considering we have so many youngsters coming through who will become HG after they hit 22.

The way Arteta has Bellerin come inside to midfield from RB would suit AMN a lot more plus he's the best defender we have at that position but that ship has sailed. Cedric is now ahead of him as well with his performances lately. How he can't get a chance in midfield even as a backup over the likes of Elneny I'll never know.

When he was given a run of games to end the season he was fantastic shutting down the likes of Traore, Salah and Mahrez which I think lead to him being told to stay but since he doesn't seem to be in Arteta's plans at all now strange why we didn't cash in. I really like him as a player but don't see a future for him now which is a shame.

Bellerin is the natural right back, he's not amazing defensively but he's better than Ainsley. The point is both can be drastically improved upon. Also wouldn't have him near the midfield, feel like hes a complete liability.

 

[AberGooner]

You can have any amount of HG players you want as long as you have just 17 foreign players. It isn't really an issue considering we have so many youngsters coming through who will become HG after they hit 22.



Bellerin is the natural right back, he's not amazing defensively but he's better than Ainsley. The point is both can be drastically improved upon. Also wouldn't have him near the midfield, feel like hes a complete liability.

Ainsley is a far better defender than bellerin especially 1v1's. The old bellerin was a lot better going forward but we haven't seen that for years. On current form Cedric has to be starting but obviously he's not a long term option either.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Ainsley is a far better defender than bellerin especially 1v1's. The old bellerin was a lot better going forward but we haven't seen that for years. On current form Cedric has to be starting but obviously he's not a long term option either.

Both are average defensively, both rely on their physical traits to get them out of danger. But Bellerin is the natural right back and you can see that when we defend. AMN offers next to nothing going forward which is disappointing.

Take £20M and put it towards a real top right back. I'd be looking at Lamptey, Pereira and maybe even Atal.

 

[Big Poppa]

That’s a fair point, but in terms of a squad rebuild if he’s 3rd/4th choice we’d be better off getting £20m for him and investing elsewhere.

£20m gets you another 3rd/4th choice player though.

It certainly won’t get you a 23 year old England international with CL experience on low wages who can cover 2/3 positions.

Look at what clubs in the Championship are demanding for players like Ramsdale and Godfrey.

We’ll “reinvest” by getting Marcos Alonso on a free transfer from Chelsea on a 150k a week contract.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

£20m gets you another 3rd/4th choice player though.

It certainly won’t get you a 23 year old England international with CL experience on low wages who can cover 2/3 positions.

Look at what clubs in the Championship are demanding for players like Ramsdale and Godfrey.

We’ll “reinvest” by getting Marco Alonso on a free transfer from Chelsea on a 150k a week contract.

£25M got us Tierney, £23M got us Gabriel. Bit of a silly comment.

The whole point is Ainsley isn't happy just covering 2 or 3 positions waiting for someone to get injured. Also why on earth would you rather AMN, someone who is actually terrible at left back and offers almost nothing, over a proper back up left back?

We'd sell AMN for £20M and put that towards either a Lamptey or Bissouma, someone along those lines. Which is the best possible option.

 

[Macho]

£20m gets you another 3rd/4th choice player though.

It certainly won’t get you a 23 year old England international with CL experience on low wages who can cover 2/3 positions.

Look at what clubs in the Championship are demanding for players like Ramsdale and Godfrey.

We’ll “reinvest” by getting Marco Alonso on a free transfer from Chelsea on a 150k a week contract.

Lol exactly. For a club that preach long term planning a lot, I dunno man. Whatever.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

Lol exactly. For a club that preach long term planning a lot, I dunno man. Whatever.

Not sure why people don't understand that a 23 year old doesn't want to be a backup or rotational player? He's obviously not giving 100% because he's unhappy about being this sort of player.

Long term he isn't good enough to be our starter right back, he'll never be our starter left back, and he'll never be our starting midfielder. So therefore he will obviously have to be sold.

He doesn't fit the long term plan.

 

[AberGooner]

Both are average defensively, both rely on their physical traits to get them out of danger. But Bellerin is the natural right back and you can see that when we defend. AMN offers next to nothing going forward which is disappointing.

Take £20M and put it towards a real top right back. I'd be looking at Lamptey, Pereira and maybe even Atal.

For me AMN is a much better defender than Bellerin. Going forward he may not be Cafu but in Arteta's system it's been the LB that bombs forward. It's not going to happen anyway so for now I'd rather Cedric started at RB, think he's earned it recently.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

For me AMN is a much better defender than Bellerin. Going forward he may not be Cafu but in Arteta's system it's been the LB that bombs forward. It's not going to happen anyway so for now I'd rather Cedric started at RB, think he's earned it recently.

We've seen that when we have a capable right back in Cedric that the right back bombs forward too. Bellerin isn't capable, he tends to reverse and play backwards, has no confidence in his ability going forward. AMN goes forward, good physical traits, but trash in the final third.

 

[Sanchez11]

Sell Amn, bellerin and buy aarons

 

[Big Poppa]

£25M got us Tierney, £23M got us Gabriel. Bit of a silly comment.

The whole point is Ainsley isn't happy just covering 2 or 3 positions waiting for someone to get injured. Also why on earth would you rather AMN, someone who is actually terrible at left back and offers almost nothing, over a proper back up left back?

We'd sell AMN for £20M and put that towards either a Lamptey or Bissouma, someone along those lines. Which is the best possible option.

We’ll agree to disagree on our assessment of AMN.

We aren’t getting Bissouma or Lamptey for anything reasonable.

You realise we took out a £120m government loan to cover lost match day revenue and paid hefty sums to players so they could leave right?

Expect more loans, freebies and U23 rookies if we don’t get top 4. This isn’t Football Manager.

 

[SA Gunner]

 

[field442]

Not sure what that does for his England chances? He wants to leave so he can get game time but he's picked by England to play wing back.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Ainsley is very very good on the ball for a fullback, he is very good in build up. I think he's actually a really nice foil to Tierney, who is the more traditional direct overlapping fullback.

I don't understand why Arteta uses Bellerin, a very average technical footballer, to come inside as an inverted fullback, when AMN is far more suited to the role.

The writing is on the wall for him here though. Best case scenario for all parties is he goes out on loan, impresses then we recoup 20odd million in the summer.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

We’ll agree to disagree on our assessment of AMN.

We aren’t getting Bissouma or Lamptey for anything reasonable.

You realise we took out a £120m government loan to cover lost match day revenue and paid hefty sums to players so they could leave right?

Expect more loans, freebies and U23 rookies if we don’t get top 4. This isn’t Football Manager.

We're paying that loan back in May, its just a temporary thing. I've heard this for two summers now, expect freebies, rookies and nothing much if we don't make top 4. Over those two summers we've spent £240M.

With the amount of players leaving this window and leaving in the summer you'd be stupid to think we won't be spending £80M+ on footballers.

Lamptey was just an example. But I think we'll get Bissouma for around £30M if it happens.

 

[Macho]

Ainsley is very very good on the ball for a fullback, he is very good in build up. I think he's actually a really nice foil to Tierney, who is the more traditional direct overlapping fullback.

I don't understand why Arteta uses Bellerin, a very average technical footballer, to come inside as an inverted fullback, when AMN is far more suited to the role.

The writing is on the wall for him here though. Best case scenario for all parties is he goes out on loan, impresses then we recoup 20odd million in the summer.

Agreed with all except we should get more than 20m tbh. Iwobi type numbers should be a minimum.

 

[Riou]

Couple of things with this...

1. If Niles plays a big part in Fat Sam staying up, then Arteta and Edu out tbh.

2. Shame we didn't give him a proper chance, either in midfield or defence...as he is better than Bellerin for me, and would compliment Partey quite well.

3. Shame Niles doesn't want to just be a full-back/wing-back, as I still think that's what this comes down to mainly, him wanting to play in the middle...we would all like to play where we want, but sometimes you just take what you can get...we signed Lauren as an international recognized midfielder, yet he ended up becoming one of our best right-backs ever...when an opportunity opens up, you have to take it...would you rather be a FB/WB for Arsenal, or a centre mid for a West Brom level team?

...anyway, hope we at least get good money for him, as he seems finished here.

 

[SingmeasongSong]

Loan him, have him play CM there and then assess in the summer.

Has the potential to be a 40-50m midfielder if he gets a long string of games, trust and confidence.
We don't play him at his best position, so let it happen somewhere else and benefit.

 

[MikelHadADream]

Agreed with all except we should get more than 20m tbh. Iwobi type numbers should be a minimum.

I'm not sure about that, Iwobi was a forward (had loads of appearances on the left wing for us) so there's a bit of a premium there. You have to judge AMN as a fullback, and going off those prices I think he'll be in the 20m range, which is still a good deal for us considering he's an academy player IMO.

 

[AberGooner]

We've seen that when we have a capable right back in Cedric that the right back bombs forward too. Bellerin isn't capable, he tends to reverse and play backwards, has no confidence in his ability going forward. AMN goes forward, good physical traits, but trash in the final third.

Will have to disagree on AMN. If given a run of games I think he'd be more than capable but unfortunately that's not looking likely anytime soon.

If he's not in Arteta's plans then it makes sense to sell him but not for anything like £20m when we see the fees homegrown players go for.