The 11 players who could leave Arsenal in Mikel Arteta’s summer rebuild

5. Ainsley Maitland-Niles

When he first burst onto the scene under Arsene Wenger, many including myself thought that Ainsley Maitland-Niles was the next best thing. I remember thinking to myself, if I was that composed at that age then maybe I wouldn’t have flopped my exams as hard as I did.

Maitland-Niles is calmness personified. Unfortunately, though, he’s been calm enough to push for the success he could’ve had at this stage in his career. Granted, he’s still a great player and he could benefit Arsenal if Mikel Arteta came up with a development plan but it’s probably a wiser choice to sell him and generate some much-needed transfer funds.

The 25-year-old is currently on loan at Southampton who is likely to be relegated. It would be unfair to say this is his level as he’s capable of better, but to be entering the prime stages of your career at a relegation-battling side when you made your senior debut in a Champions League match is quite bleak.