{"id":1036909,"date":"2026-09-01T13:07:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036909\/"},"modified":"2026-09-01T13:07:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:07:18","slug":"everton-closing-in-on-transfer-of-lyons-ainsley-maitland-niles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1036909\/","title":{"rendered":"Everton closing in on transfer of Lyon\u2019s Ainsley Maitland-Niles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Everton are closing in on a deadline day move for Lyon\u2019s Ainsley Maitland-Niles.<\/p>\n<p>The 29-year-old is expected on Merseyside for a medical on Tuesday, potentially bringing to an end the club\u2019s long search for a new right-back.<\/p>\n<p>Everton had also been working in parallel on a deal for Kenny Tete, who was left out of the Fulham squad for Sunday\u2019s defeat to Sunderland ahead of a potential move, but are now prioritising Maitland-Niles ahead of Tuesday\u2019s deadline.<\/p>\n<p>The Merseyside club have been in the market for a new right-back this summer, with club captain Seamus Coleman having called time on his 17-year stint at Everton at the end of last season.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/7554984\/2026\/09\/01\/everton-transfers-nathan-patterson-torino\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> The Athletic reported<\/a> earlier on Tuesday that Scotland international Nathan Patterson is also closing in on a permanent move to Italian side Torino.<\/p>\n<p>Former Arsenal player Maitland-Niles had one year to run on his Lyon deal and has been the subject of long-standing interest from Everton. He has five England caps, the last of which came in November 2020, and is also capable of playing as a central midfielder.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Everton\u2019s long right-back search reaches conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll I want to do is go where I\u2019m wanted &amp; where I\u2019m going to play,\u201d wrote Maitland-Niles in August 2021 as he attempted to force a move from Arsenal to Everton.<\/p>\n<p>The idea at the time was for the Merseyside club to strengthen their stocks at full-back and begin to plan for life without long-serving club captain Coleman. So there is a certain irony that we are here, five years on, with Maitland-Niles finally primed to get his move to Merseyside, in effect as Coleman\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n<p>Everton considered a number of other options late in the window, including Tete of Fulham, as they sought a new right-back. Maitland-Niles, a long-standing target, appealed due to his contractual situation \u2014 he had one year left in France \u2014 and versatility.<\/p>\n<p>Alongside central midfield, he is also seen as an option to cover at left-back, where Everton have also been short after sanctioning the loan departure of Adam Aznou to Malaga.<\/p>\n<p>Provided all goes to plan with the medical, Everton\u2019s long search for a new right-back may be about to draw to an end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Everton are closing in on a deadline day move for Lyon\u2019s Ainsley Maitland-Niles. The 29-year-old is expected on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1036910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[45],"tags":[6026,18753,1723,414858,221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-1036909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-england","tag-everton","tag-ligue-1","tag-olympique-lyonnais","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117195941103441483","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1036909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1036909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1036909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1036909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1036909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}