Charles Watts, the Arsenal correspondent for Goal has been discussing all things transfer related with regards to the club in a recent video posted on his YouTube channel.
One of the topics the journalist discussed was the future of Ainsley Maitland-Niles. The 23-year-old was recently the subject of a bid from Wolverhampton Wanderers who managed to finish above the Gunners in the Premier League last season (as per Sky Sports).
The player played 90 minutes in the club’s victories over Manchester City and Chelsea at the end of last season (as per Transfermarkt.co.uk) which saw them go on to lift the FA Cup for a record 14th time. More recently, the England international played in the Community Shield final victory over Liverpool at Wembley.
After Wolves’ initial approach was rebuffed, here is what Watts had to say on the chances of Maitland-Niles staying with the club:
“Maitland-Niles is looking more and more like he’s going to stay. There has been big interest in Maitland-Niles recently, Arsenal have rejected that interest so far, and it looks like he could be staying.”
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TIF Thoughts…
Judging by Watts’ comments, it appears he is somewhat confident Mikel Arteta will opt to keep the versatile young man. During the 2019/20 campaign, he played in a number of different positions including right-back, right-midfield, left-midfield, left-back and centre-midfield (as per Transfermarkt.co.uk).
He made a total of 32 appearances for the North London club last season, contributing one goal and two assists.
Although his Transfermarkt.co.uk value currently stands at £13.05m, given Arsenal have already turned down a bid of £15m, it appears that they value their player at significantly higher price.