December 24, (THEWILL) – Italian side Roma are ready to give Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles an opportunity to rekindle his career in Serie A with a transfer move in January.
After a summer deal to Everton fell through late in the season, the 24-year-old resorted to social media to ask the Gunners to allow him depart in quest of regular first-team play, as THEWILL reported.
Maitland-Niles has played in eight Premier League games since then, just two of which were as a starter, and he has not appeared in any of Arsenal’s previous six games.
A January departure is expected after Roma added Maitland-Niles to a list of prospective transfer window targets.
Arsenal have been approached by Jose Mourinho’s side to negotiate a loan deal, and Maitland-Niles is said to be interested. Everton are also interested in signing the versatile midfielder on loan, but he would like to go abroad.
Mourinho is collaborating with Tiago Pinto, the Roma general manager, to discover prospective Premier League targets.
They came close to signing Granit Xhaka in the summer as part of their goal to sign out-of-favour stars in England’s top flight, and they instead signed Chelsea forward Tammy Abraham.
Maitland-Niles will join fellow Englishmen Abraham and Chris Smalling in Roma, while Mourinho’s side also includes former Arsenal teammate Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
Mikel Arteta, Arsenal’s manager, lauded Maitland-Niles for putting his head down and trying to fight his way back into the team, but the 24-year-old is still out of favour and hoping to find a new home elsewhere.
Arsenal will most likely want to offload Maitland-Niles permanently in the near future, with a summer exit being the most likely scenario as there are only 18 months left of his contract.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
