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Ainsley Maitland-Niles: Midfielder or in deNile?

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Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
I’m not saying you have to be as good or half as good as the players I mentioned. But at least, please, be good at something before you ask to play as a CM.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
Good energy and confidence on the ball. Palace or Southampton is probably his level though.
 

Rasmi

Negative Nancy

Country: England
I’m not saying you have to be as good or half as good as the players I mentioned. But at least, please, be good at something before you ask to play as a CM.
he is a good athlete and poor footballer. Wst brom fans are not impressed with him
 

AberGooner

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Player:Gabriel
While we’ve been playing Elneny and Ceballos instead of being creative and creating opportunity for him and Willock to grab. So inefficient with the resources we have to try to make the most from them.
More worrying that we can all see this but the club doesn't seem to. Even rival fans asking why we've let him go on loan.
 

dka1

100% Dark Chocolate
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More worrying that we can all see this but the club doesn't seem to. Even rival fans asking why we've let him go on loan.

Yep and to add to that, I don't think anyone is/was demanding AMN should be starting. But he should've been given more opportunities.

Can't expect him to prove anything in midfield whilst getting like one or two appearances there. And it's not surprising he looked so rusty, quite often as he never had time to build form.

Anyway.
 
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AberGooner

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Player:Gabriel
Yep and to add to that, I don't think anyone is/was demanding AMN should be starting. But he should've been given more opportunities.

Can't expect him to prove anything in midfielder whilst getting like one or two appearances there. And it's no surprising he looked so rusty, quite often as he never had time to build form.

Anyway.
Exactly. It's pretty clear that Partey/Xhaka is our starting midfield when fit but how much minutes have Elneny and Ceballos played this season? Quite a lot for no return. You only have to watch AMN in midfield, for a poor WBA side, to know that he's got all the attributes to play that position to a far higher standard than those two.
 

Iceman10

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Exactly. It's pretty clear that Partey/Xhaka is our starting midfield when fit but how much minutes have Elneny and Ceballos played this season? Quite a lot for no return. You only have to watch AMN in midfield, for a poor WBA side, to know that he's got all the attributes to play that position to a far higher standard than those two.

Just goes to show that there is a lot of clear out of the squad to do, but mainly thinning senior ranks, not these players who have identity with Arsenal coming up through youth ranks. Thin out the squad, upto 5 signings based on how well sales go, and then these types of players start out the season as second or third choice, playing in cup competitions with a fair chance to do more as they prove themselves.

It’s not rocket science really, but there is no assurance Mikel/Edu are committed to it. Getting some of these players to work can also save 30m if they work out well, and the way we depreciate our assets we aren’t getting anywhere near 30m for selling these players. It’s again more about an Arsenal manager having to be more similar to Brendan Rodgers than Pep/Mourinho.
 

Gooner416

Master of Stonks
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A few thoughts,
- Our squad isn't as a bad as it's made out to be by some on here
- It's shocking that our manager prefers to provide game time to players on expiring loans/contracts over our Hale End youngsters who have gone to flourish at other PL sides
- We're not challenging for any places and can afford to provide some minimal game time to our youth over the likes of Ceballos etc. who will not be here next season

Sack Edu & Arteta

Thank you for attending my TED Talk.
 

GunnerBP

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It think we should wait until the summer to judge Arteta on how he is developing AMN and Willock. These two needed consistent minutes to develop and even if they played over Elneny and Ceballos they weren't going to get enough minutes here.

At West Brom, AMN didn't get off to the best start. He didn't play poorly, but a lot of West Brom supporters thought he looked like a RB/RWB being played out of position. However, with consistent minutes in midfield his performances have gotten better and better. He wouldn't get those minutes with us.

Willock has been kind of the same. We all know that he can score goals, but his all-around play needs to be much better to play for us. At Newcastle, he has improved defensively. Again he wouldn't get the minutes to make those improvements if we didn't loan him out.

If AMN and Willock continue to have successful loans, and Arteta decides to sell them this summer then that should raise a lot of red flags. Selling Elneny, not buying Ceballos, and bringing back AMN and Willock should be good financially and make the team better.
 

gunner4lyfe

Established Member
Has he finally woken up and decided to play some ball? Has he cut out his nonchalant attitude? Hope so because I believe that's his issue. He can be really good but only if he wants to be.
 

Iceman10

Established Member
It think we should wait until the summer to judge Arteta on how he is developing AMN and Willock. These two needed consistent minutes to develop and even if they played over Elneny and Ceballos they weren't going to get enough minutes here.

At West Brom, AMN didn't get off to the best start. He didn't play poorly, but a lot of West Brom supporters thought he looked like a RB/RWB being played out of position. However, with consistent minutes in midfield his performances have gotten better and better. He wouldn't get those minutes with us.

Willock has been kind of the same. We all know that he can score goals, but his all-around play needs to be much better to play for us. At Newcastle, he has improved defensively. Again he wouldn't get the minutes to make those improvements if we didn't loan him out.

If AMN and Willock continue to have successful loans, and Arteta decides to sell them this summer then that should raise a lot of red flags. Selling Elneny, not buying Ceballos, and bringing back AMN and Willock should be good financially and make the team better.

I like the general gist of your comment and the one above, even though they are different when it comes to any benefit of doubt left with Arteta/Edu. I think @The_Playmaker has previously made a good comment summarising there is too much of a pattern with Arteta now to have much benefit of doubt remaining with the way he treats our youth overall, quite detached from any real meritocracy. The risk is giving him the summer because of damage that can be done, but if he somehow pulls out an EL win he will have it anyway.
 

GunnerBP

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I like the general gist of your comment and the one above, even though they are different when it comes to any benefit of doubt left with Arteta/Edu. I think @The_Playmaker has previously made a good comment summarising there is too much of a pattern with Arteta now to have much benefit of doubt remaining with the way he treats our youth overall, quite detached from any real meritocracy. The risk is giving him the summer because of damage that can be done, but if he somehow pulls out an EL win he will have it anyway.
It doesn't matter if you think Arteta will make a good or bad decision in the summer. AMN and Willock were not going regularly start matches and play 70+ minutes a match if they stayed here. We're complaining about Arteta playing Ceballos and Elneny ahead of AMN and Willock, but Ceballos and Elneny are our backups for Partey and Xhaka. AMN and Willock need to be some of the first names on the team sheet for an EPL to further their development and give them a chance at playing for us.

I'm a fan of both players, but they aren't starters for us. That has very little to do with Arteta's development of our young players.

This summer he'll have to make some big decisions about which players stay and which go, and then we'll be able to judge him.

If you want, you can decide to judge him now, but AMN and Willock will be on loan for the rest of the season. Not sure what's the point of imagining what Arteta will do in the summer and deciding to get mad about what you imagine will happen months from now.

Judge Arteta when he has to make the decisions, but sending AMN and Willock on loan has not been a bad decision.
 
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