Arsenal midfielder Ainsley Maitland-Niles joins Ipswich Town on loan deal

Arsenal youngster Ainsley Maitland-Niles looks set to spend 2015-16 in the Championship after the club announced he has joined Ipswich Town on a season-long loan deal.

The 17-year-old midfielder, most adept when deployed out wide, cannot be recalled from Portman Road at any time as per details of the agreement confirmed by Ipswich and becomes Mick McCarthy's fourth signing of the summer following the arrivals of Bournemouth duo Ryan Fraser and Brett Pitman as part of the deal that saw Tyrone Mings move to the Premier League newcomers for a club-record £8m ($12.4m) fee.

Defender Josh Yorwerth also joined on a free transfer from second-tier rivals Cardiff City on 1 July.

"It's been a long wait to get the deal done but I'm here now and I'm ready to work," Maitland-Niles told Ipswich Player following confirmation of the move.

"Arsenal want me to get a bit of experience under my belt and I'm happy to do that. I'm still young and there's plenty of time for me to develop. The Championship is a tough league but one I feel ready to perform in. The lads have really made me feel welcome here, they are wonderful.

"You can tell there's a good group here and they've helped me settle in really well. I'm ready to work hard in pre-season now and hopefully hit the ground running ahead of the new season."

Unlike several of Arsenal's budding youngsters, U21 regular Maitland-Niles has previously appeared for the first team on more than one occasion.

After making his debut as a 70th-minute substitute in the Champions League tie against Galatasaray on 9 December 2014, the England U18 international was also handed brief cameos in the league win against Newcastle United and the FA Cup third-round tie against Hull City.

Maitland-Niles's mother attracted headlines in April, with The Telegraph reporting that she was banned from the club after an altercation at Arsenal's London Colney training ground.

But Wenger insisted such an incident would not affect the player's future with the Gunners. He told The Mail: "He [Maitland-Niles] has a great future and he has my backing, his mum wants the best for him. For me he has the perfect behaviour with me. It is basically a private matter that I don't know really well about because I don't know what happened.

"But I know Ainsley very well and he has my complete support because he is a good boy and I am sure his mother wants a great future for him and to help him. There are some incidents that I don't know well and I don't know why but the boy has a perfect behaviour inside our club."