Ainsley Maitland-Niles has reportedly reached an agreement with AS Roma that will se him join on loan for the rest of the season with a view to making the deal permanent in the summer.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles looks set to become an AS Roma player when the January transfer window opens, as long as the two clubs can agree a fee.
The player will receive €2.5m as his salary, after tax and has, according to Corriere Della Sera (Roma), agreed to sign for Jose Mourinho.
On Tuesday, it was reported that Arsenal and AS Roma were close to agreeing a deal that would see Maitland-Niles head to Serie A for the rest of the season.
If that goes well, they plan to purchase him permanently in the summer for a fixed fee in the region of €10m – €15m (£8.4m – £12.6m).
Arsenal want the latter amount while Roma are trying to drive the price down so agreement will likely be found somewhere in the middle at around £10m, which is roughly what the 24-year-old is worth.
Arsenal also want the clause in Maitland-Niles’ contract to be an obligation to buy, should he make a certain amount of performances (somewhere in the region of 8-10).
Roma would prefer this to be a simple option to buy.
The loan fee currently tabled, that would cover the remainder of the season, is said to be €700k.
Arsenal’s Ainsley Maitland-Niles promise broken
Ainsley Maitland-Niles is right to be feeling a little misled after the promise of more minutes has been broken.
Ainsley Maitland-Niles currently has Covid, but, even if he didn’t, it’s doubtful we would have seen him much.
The 24-year-old was happy to leave Arsenal last summer, but the club, Mikel Arteta in particular, convinced him to stay with the promise of more minutes.
So far this season, Maitland-Niles has played 472 minutes, started just four games (two in the league, two in the League Cup), and played the full 90 just three times.
He averages around 43 minutes per appearance, of which he’s had 11.
Those aren’t great stats and they are even worse than last season before he was sent on loan to West Brom.
Maitland-Niles had played 16 times for Arsenal by then, totalling up nearly three times the minutes compared to this season (1,183).
He also played the full 90 eight times and averaged 74 minutes per appearance.
A few weeks ago, it was reported that the midfielder is feeling misled, and you can understand why.
Despite assurances, he appears to be moving further away from the first-team than more central to it.
Granit Xhaka’s injury came and went and Maitland-Niles barely got a look in.
He is out of contract in 2023 but I would very much doubt he will be an Arsenal player by when that year rolls around and who could blame him for leaving?