Graeme Souness told Sky Sports during their live coverage of Super Sunday that Ainsley Maitland-Niles isn’t at Arsenal because he lacks consistency in his game.
In the summer, it was documented that the Arsenal academy product could be heading for the North London exit door, but a move didn’t materialise.
Whilst Maitland-Niles did feature for Mikel Arteta this season, game time which earned him an England call, started to reduce as the winter transfer window neared and he moved out on-loan to West Brom last month.
It was suggested to Souness that Maitland-Niles moved to West Brom because of the minutes they could provide him, and the fact that he wanted to play in midfield, but the ex-Liverpool man savaged the player for not even being able to get into an Arsenal side that is just ‘huffing and puffing’
“Yes, he’s got talent,” said Souness. “But if you want to play in the Premier League, especially for one of the big teams, you have to be consistent. The word consistency is what it’s all about.
“You have to turn up and put in a seven every week. It’s no good having a great game and then a very disappointing game. That’s why he’s not at Arsenal, right now.
“We are not talking about an Arsenal team that are tearing walls down. This is an Arsenal team that are huffing and puffing.”
Well, it’s two games in for Maitland-Niles and his West Brom team have picked up one point during those matches.
Sunday’s performance against Manchester United was a lot better than previous weeks, but the point wasn’t enough simply because of how far behind Sam Allardyce’s team are.
They are 12 points behind those outside of the relegation zone and Maitland-Niles will need to pluck all that experience he has in his locker if he is going to get them out of this seemingly hard-to-get-out-of situation.
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