Reports are surfacing that a deal is almost done to bring Ainsley Maitland-Niles to Saints and that a medical for the player is imminent and an announcement could be made as early as Wednesday evening.
According to those in the know a deal for Ainslie Maitland-Niles is about to be done between Arsenal & Southampton, it is not straight forward and firstly Arsenal will excersise their right to extend his contract by an extra year to now end in 2024 instead of it's current 2023.
That was obviously something that the player had to consider as he could leave for free in another 12 months, from their perspective Arsenal wanted to get something for their man rather than see him leave on a free.
That hurdle is now said to have been overcome and now Maitland-NIles is in talks with Southampton with Arsenal said to be in agreement to a one year loan deal with an option to buy at a fixed price at the end.
This is not expected to be an issue, much of these negotiations are usually agreed informally between the players agent and club before a transfer is agreed between both buying and selling club, to be blunt it saves a lot of going down blind alleys, so clubs will usually sound out whether the player is interested before making a bid.
So Maitland-Niles could have a medical today and an announcement might be forthcoming this evening, although chances are it will be the morning, Saints would of course like to get him into Staplewood to meet his new team mates on Thursday and assess whether he is ready to join the squad for the trip to Wolves on Saturday.