Former Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles wants the Gunners to win the league this year, insisting he still supports his old club.
Ex-Arsenal man Ainsley Maitland-Niles left north London to join Ligue 1 side Lyon last August, having dropped out of starting contention with his boyhood club.
We’ve seen plenty of similar situations turn sour in the past, with former players holding grudges over their limited minutes and hoping to prove their old club made a mistake.
But Maitland-Niles says he wants nothing but the best for Arsenal, and he’s hoping his old teammates win the Premier League.
“It’s my boyhood club, I still support them and look out for them,” Maitland-Niles told The Athletic. “I’m hoping they are going to win the league this year. I’d love to see them do it. I have no envy in my heart at all.
“It’s a great thing to have grown up in such a great club, the way they taught us to play football and how to read the game over the years.
“Even now, I’m looking back at it and thinking about some of the stuff they’ve taught me. I still use it to this day — to prepare myself for games, the way I study our opponents and my own movements on the pitch and reading the game.
“It stemmed from having those three great managers (Arsene Wenger, Unai Emery, and Mikel Arteta) in the past.”
26-year-old Maitland-Niles has had a turbulent time with Lyon since his permanent transfer, and that’s something the player himself has never denied.
Maitland-Niles had been critical of his former Lyon boss Fabio Grosso, who supposedly didn’t even talk to the ex-Arsenal man once.
“[Not playing] wasn’t new for me,” Maitland-Niles said (via GFFN). “He didn’t even know me as a person. He never asked me how I felt, or what I wanted. I stayed calm and I worked. He left before we even had a conversation.”
But things are evidently different now, with the player recently claiming he’s finally happy again.
“Since the manager (Pierre Sage) arrived, I’m happy playing football again and get up in the morning thinking, ‘Cool, I have training’.”
Over the course of the entire season so far, Maitland-Niles has made 25 appearances, and 19 starts. But 20 of the appearances and 16 of the starts have come under Sage, who only joined at the end of November.