The two Gunners youngsters went on loan through the transfer window in January, with Maitland-Niles joining West Brom and Willock moving to Newcastle
Mikel Arteta says strong decisions about the future of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Joe Willock will be made in the summer.
The two Arsenal players were allowed to leave on loan through the transfer window in January, with Maitland-Niles joining West Brom and Willock moving to Newcastle.
They are expected to return to north London at the end of the season, without a single contract including an option to make the move permanent, and talks will then be held to find out what -possible futures.
“I expect all the loans to return and we will make a decision in the summer,” Arteta said.
Willock has made 17 appearances in all competitions this season for Arsenal, scoring three goals.
He has only started twice in the Premier League, however, and Arteta felt it was the right time for a 21-year-old midfielder to experience some consistent playing time in the top flight.
“Joe’s situation was very clear to me,” said the Spaniard.
“We talked over the summer about a possible loan and I told him I wasn’t comfortable with that because I wanted to give him minutes to play different tournaments. He has played 17 or 18 games in this period which is a lot.
“He’s been playing a lot, but now we have fewer tournaments and I thought he would have less time and maybe the best thing to do is 14, 15, 16 games for him in the Premier League.
“It would be great to have 30-32 games in one season for ages and with what it has done in the last few years.
“We found the right club manager and coaches. So hopefully it will be a successful time for him. ”
At the same time Maitland-Niles were keen to go out on loan in January to allow himself to make Gareth Southgate’s England squad for this summer’s European Championships.
Arsenal rejected a bid of more than £ 20 million from the Wolves for the 23-year-old last summer, with Arteta deciding he wanted to hold on to the multiplayer player.
But he has only started five Premier League games since then and with the European Championships approaching, Maitland-Niles knew he needed to get out to get a little more game time.
“Ainsley is a different stage in his development [to Willock] and he’s an English international, ”said Arteta.
“He’s played more games and he wanted to start games and he wanted that promise and, in my career, it was very different to do that.
“He was willing to experience something else and I decided to let him do that. He can play in a variety of roles and may have the opportunity to play in midfield which is important to him.
“When a player’s main passion is not financial and just playing football, it’s very difficult to stand in his way when you don’t feel like he’s going to start a lot of games.”