One of the mysteries in the transfer window was Arsenal resisting a late bid from Everton to take Ainsley Maitland-Niles on loan.
This led to an outburst from the no-longer-that-young Englishman who shared his frustration on Instagram.
It was a petulant action in an attempt to force a move out of the club. But it was an action he was perhaps forced into due to the clubs behaviour towards him.
Last summer he was on the verge of joining Wolves where he would have instantly gone in to replace Matt Doherty at right back.
At that stage he was on the fringes of the England squad with an outside chance of making it.
Someone at Arsenal decided late on that he would not be leaving the club and the deal fell through.
He would start just 5 league games before being loaned out to relegation-bound WBA; killing any chances he had of making the Euro’s squad.
You can appreciate his 12 months of frustration.
On the verge of leaving and then kept at the club. Whatever he was promised to remain did not materialise.
And now we are in the same situation.
He has played just 19 minutes of Premier League football this season, there was an offer on the table but Edu and Mikel Arteta have decided that they do not want to let him go again.
Most people thought this was because he might be utilised at right back with Hector Bellerin going to Real Betis. But then on transfer deadline day we signed Takehiro Tomiyasu. So why did we keep Maitland-Niles?
Could Mohamed Elneny be the answer?
Whilst the transfer window across the majority of Europe has shut, it is still open in Russia, Portugal and Turkey. It is the later which is of interest.
Elneny spent a solid year on loan at Besiktas in 2019 and his stock will still be high over there.
Last summer there were rumours of a Turkish return but he ended up remaining at Arsenal.
With one year left on his deal, and Arsenal having Thomas Partey, Albert-Sambi Lokonga and Granit Xhaka in the squad, Elneny could be off to turkey if a decent bid comes in. This would see Maitland-Niles “promoted” to 4th choice central midfielder.
Likewise Sead Kolasinac is still at the club.
Not only is he still an arsenal player but he played the last game against Manchester City, ahead of Pablo Mari. A strange decision by Mikel Arteta.
Not to long ago it seemed he was off to join great friend Mesut Ozil at Fenerbache.
That deal is yet to go through; but there is still plenty of time for it to happen.
With it being an international break, I do not expect either of these deals to be confirmed until next Wednesday, when the Turkish window shuts.
But I do expect both to leave us in the next 7 days.
Keenos
She Wore A Yellow Ribbon 
maitland niles has 2 years left on his contract. everton offered a 2 year loan deal, with an option to buy after the loan period. and exactly how much would everton pay for a player whose contract had finished? the arsenal did the right thing telling everton to do one. and hopefully amn can get his career back on track, and show us the player we thought he was during the 2020 season.
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As I understood it, AMN to Wolves never went through because of the player, not Arsenal.
At that point in time, AMN was insisting he would only play in midfield and not RB. He made it quite clear to Arsenal, Wolves and Leicester, and then in January to West Brom and Southamptom, that he did not want to play RB.
The guy messed around with his own career.
Why didn’t Arsenal sanction the loan offer from Everton? Because it was a joke. It was a 2 year loan deal for virtually no fee – he has 2 years left on his contract. They would have effectively been selling a versatile, talented English full international with 2 years left on his contract for next to nothing. That would have been deranged.
I think the bigger issue ia Arteta and Arsenal are clearly not transparent enough with the squad. They treat squad members like children rather than like adults. When you treat adults like children, they can either disengage or start acting like children.
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