The first thing Ainsley Maitland-Niles did was call Tammy Abraham to discuss his Roma move, while he could make the transfer from Arsenal permanent, revealed the intermediary who worked on the deal.
This is a six-month loan and he was thrown straight into the starting XI against Juventus in Serie A just 24 hours after completing the transfer.
It was an epic game, with Juve coming back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 at the Stadio Olimpico.
“The timing of the deal was fundamental to get it done, this was an urgent situation for Roma,” intermediary Roberto De Fanti told Teleradiostereo.
“If Ainsley does well, the two clubs will talk again and reach an agreement to make it permanent, but Niles is currently on a dry loan.”
The agent revealed the interest in Maitland-Niles was hardly new, as Jose Mourinho had already pin-pointed the England international when he first arrived in Italy.
“There had been interest over the summer, then from the moment Mikel Arteta was clearly making different choices, he decided to play elsewhere. Roma, who were tracking the situation, remembered him and we resumed talks recently.”
Maitland-Niles is expected to hold his presentation press conference tomorrow and already said Mourinho’s presence was one of the keys behind the transfer.
However, the intermediary points out it was someone else the player initially called for advice.
“The first thing Niles did, as soon as the possibility of a move to Roma emerged, was to call Tammy Abraham, who convinced him to come straight away.
“He started out as a centre-back, then his pace saw him become a full-back. He can also take penalties and has never missed from the spot in professional football.”
Considering Roma and Arsenal have now seemingly resolved their differences, could they also resume those summer talks for Granit Xhaka?
“You can say anything in the transfer market. There is a good rapport between the clubs, we’ll have to see what the situation is five months from the end of the season.”
🗣️ Parla l’intermediario di #MaitlandNiles
📞 “Appena ha saputo della #Roma ha chiamato #Abraham”
⬇️ Le dichiarazioni di Roberto #DeFantihttps://t.co/VKjcMO5Meu #ASRoma— SiamolaRoma.it (@siamo_la_Roma) January 12, 2022