Mohamed Elneny has explained how his Arsenal move came about, after scouts watching another player noticed him playing for FC Basel.
The Gunners had their eye on Fabian Schar, a Swiss international central defender now currently with Hoffenheim, but the Egyptian international caught their eye, and he ended up moving to London in January for a fee of around £11m.
Speaking to DMC sports, the midfielder said, “I was very happy when I joined Arsenal but I asked one of my friends how the negotiations started and if they had scouted me before.
“He told me that Arsenal officials were scouting Fabian Schär in the first place, and that’s when they noticed me.
“All of us at Basel knew that Schär was linked with Arsenal and at every season’s end, we congratulated him as the move was close to completion, according to Schär himself. But afterwards, things changed quickly.”
“My agent told me that Arsenal officials came many times to watch Schär but they were impressed every time by my performances and development and they went on to sign me instead.”
So, a nice little insight into how things work, and how close Schar came to being an Arsenal player. It’s an illustration as to how, until everything is signed, sealed and delivered, transfers can change very quickly.
Wooow crazy. I wonder why we didn’t go for Schar though…talented guy, but not complaining with Mustafi and Holding signing.
Elneny is a bargain at 5m…great option to have on the team and feel he can get better. Needs to be more proactive though.
Went to the game in the shithole yesterday. People are slating him as being our worst player yesterday. When you go to a game you see many things you may not see on TV, i.e. the camera angles, focused on the ball/player, showing replays etc. From yesterday our best player bar Cech was Coquelin. Our worst player probably Ramsey/Ozil considering their quality and what they’re capable of. I felt Elneny did alright but if you see how Utd set up yesterday, you knew they were going to sit proper deep and try hit us on the counter. We played poor… Read more »
elnenny did ok , but we needed something more from player playing in his position. we bareley created any chance yesterday because ozil was bad . the reason ozil was off form was becausehe barely got to touch the ball around penalty area where he can create those chances .and when he got the ball he needed to come to the flanks or deeper . santi is the one that carries the ball from back to ozil at the other end so he can create chances . elneny was never going to do that . so ramsey should’ve been more… Read more »
I’m happy with elneny as a player. He’s a good all rounder who looks like he will only improve with time. He’s already shown he’s solid, just needs to add a bit of spark to his game. He has a great attitude so this may well happen
So wad Fabian was left Schar’d by that move?
Always good to Schär an interesting story.
And some clueless journalist will keep saying Arsene is not active n the transfer market as if they follow him where ever he goes. COYG
El Neny was not good yesterday, away from home and he’s closing down the centre backs again and again leaving Coquelin to try and defend against three of Man Uniteds midfield. He was pushing up and Man Uniteds defenders time after time passed it backed to De Gea who sent it long leaving him completely out of position.
Re-criticisms regarding Elney’s performance he did have Pogba and Herrera to contend with – a pretty tough ask. Plus I think he’s more efficient than defensive. a guy that keeps the midfield ticking over in a tidy manner as opposed to a creator or a destroyer.
Would like to see him take more risk and start spraying some long diagonals. I think he has that in his locker but his approach is very safety first. He needs to take more of the creative responsibility especially if paired up with someone like the Coq.
Agreed.
Also have to point out that it was difficult ‘spraying long diagonals’ because of our wing play (or lack thereof), because a) Valencia was causing havoc down our left, and Ramsey isn’t a natural left winger – two reasons why we didn’t have many opportunities to find space down that wing; and b) Jenks is no Bellerin, so Theo wasn’t able to find himself much space.
Both of the above were big contributors to our lackluster display
Elneny has Ramsey’s work rate and movement. Full stop. That’s not a small statement. I love how he always shows for the ball and is available as an outlet. He always covers a huge amount of ground. The problem with Elneny is that he lacks the ability to consistently hit long passes the way that Cazorla or Xhaka do, and he also lacks the technical ability to retain possession against the press like Cazorla or even Ramsey can. He’s a useful all-rounder as a CM, but he’s not a guy who can give us a creative spark in the central… Read more »
Ramsey retain possession in tight spaces against high press??? Dude Ramsey is our worst midfielder in such situations. Let’s not talk about when he’s not being marked at all
Elneny – sideways passing merchant – brings very little to the team