Mikel Arteta explains why he let Maitland-Niles on loan to Roma

Ainsley Maitland-Niles joined AS Roma on a six-month loan.

The 24-year old midfielder expressed his desire to leave the North London club on a permanent basis to manager Mikel Arteta.

He played only 250 minutes of Premier League football in his career but an approach from Jose Mourinho’s Roma made him leave in order to secure more first-team football.

“Well, Ainsley came to me and explained the reasons why he thought the best thing for him and his career right now was to move away,” revealed Arteta at his press conference this afternoon.

“He believed that the opportunity of Roma and working with Jose was a really good one. We already had this conversation in the summer and we decided to keep him at the club and assess the situation in December.

“Being fair, with the amount of minutes he’s played, he was entitled to that opportunity, and when a player feels that way – and has a strong argument like he had – it’s very difficult to turn that away.

“So, we decided to let him go and wish him the best.”

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