6 – Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Question marks remain over what to do with Maitland-Niles, but over recent seasons he’s showed himself to be nothing more than a versatile squad player.
Putting his Instagram moaning aside for a second, the 24-year-old is reaching a pivotal part of his Arsenal career with just one year left to run on his contract.
Since Mikel Arteta came in to the club the Englishman has spent two spells out on loan to both West Brom and Roma, with the latter proving far less successful.
Maitland-Niles joined Jose Mourinho’s side in early January as he forced his way out for playing time, which ultimately failed to materialise with just eight appearances made in Serie A for the second half of the campaign.
And having failed to set the world alight with his form on the pitch, potential suitors may well be put off by Maitland-Niles public attitude where he’s often moaned rather than buckled down and fought for his place.
We’d all love to see the player work out at Arsenal, but in order to do that he’s going to need to take a leaf out of his fellow Hale End Academy graduates by forgetting his own priorities and listen to the advice of his coach.
Arteta has tried to utilise him as a right-back but it seems he’s just not having it and is instead persistent on insisting that he’s more tailored to the central midfield role.
With Arsenal already having three options at right-back and in the market for a new central midfielder, all signs point to a Maitland-Niles exit this summer.
I think this one will go down to the wire with Arsenal trying to get as much cash in as possible for a permanent deal, whilst Maitland-Niles will push hard for the move and his priority will be more about game time rather than what league he plays in.