Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles looks all set to leave the club and there’s a big chance that he is going to remain in the Premier League.
According to the Daily Express, apart from two European clubs, PL sides West Ham United, Bournemouth and Fulham are interested in signing the 24-year-old.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles has come up through the ranks at the club but he’s always been a backup player for every manager. He made his debut for the senior side in 2016 but to date, he’s made only 129 appearances for the club.
He spent the second half of the previous season out on loan to AS Roma but he failed to impress in the Serie A as well. He managed only seven league appearances and had a rating of just 6.6 out of 10.
🚨 West Ham, Fulham and Bournemouth are all interested in signing Ainsley Maitland-Niles. Arsenal want to sell him permanently. Reports, @ExWHUemployee.
Shoutout to @karthikadhaigal, for the impressive find. pic.twitter.com/xOr250GNvI
— Eduardo Hagn (@EduardoHagn) August 22, 2022
Ainsley Maitland-Niles is primarily a central defensive midfielder but he can also play on the right-hand side of midfield plus he can also operate as a right-back.
Many think Mikel Arteta should hold onto his because he’s a versatile player but during the past year, the Arsenal manager has been able to plug most of the holes in his squad. He has Lokonga, Xhaka and Thomas Partey for the midfield role and on the right-hand side of defence, he has Tomiyasu and Cedric.
Also, Maitland-Niles earns £52,000-per-week so it makes no sense to keep him as a bench-warmer when so many teams are ready to sign him up.
The 24-year-old is currently valued at £9 million but he has only one more year left on his contract which means a fee of around £8-10 million should be enough for Arsenal to agree on a sale.
West Ham, Bournemouth and Fulham are all capable of playing this amount but we think Ainsley Maitland-Niles would be more inclined to join the Hammers because they finished seventh last season.
West Ham United might not have made the best of starts to their campaign but Fulham and Bournemouth have just been promoted so there’s every chance they could go back down again.
