It’s clear that Mohamed Elneny is available for transfer before the European windows close. Unai Emery said as much last week.
Having played very little under Unai Emery last season, and now finding himself behind Granit Xhaka, Joe Willock, Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira and Dani Ceballos in the central midfield pecking order, the Egyptian international needs to find a new club if he wants to play regularly.
Reports from France this morning suggest that Bordeaux, frustrated in their attempts to sign Youssef Ait Bennasser from Monaco, have turned to the Arsenal man as a possible solution to their midfield needs.
There’s not a great deal more information than that, so we can take it with the usual pinch of transfer salt, but the chances are the 27 year old will be on the move before September 2nd.
Elneny’s father spoke about the situation last week, suggesting it was the player’s desire to leave driving it, rather than Arsenal forcing him out.
“Mohamed is the one looking for a proper chance to leave to get more playing time,” he said.
“I wouldn’t prefer him to go to Turkey or France. If he leaves Arsenal I hope he stays in the Premier League.”
He has previously been linked with Leicester City, who bid £10m for him in the past, but given the window is closed until January, his only option for a new club is to go abroad.
All the signings after Sanchez and before Lacazatte, were average at the best.
I wouldn’t call Cech remotely average.
He certainly wasn’t as good for us as he was for Chelsea though. That’s something that runs like a thread through Chelsea – Arsenal moves (think Gallas and Luiz, although he’ll improve – hopefully).
I would be interested if anyone can honestly say that they think Cech was as good for us as he was for Chelsea. Don’t get me wrong, he did a good job at The Emirates, but overall he was certainly not at the same level that he was for them.
Cech was an excellent signing and was our best keeper by far after Seaman. Gallas was not a bad player but it was his attitude rather than his ability that was husband problem. I will not make a judgement on Luiz after one match
His not husband. ?
Better than Jens? No way
I’m not trying to jump in on the ‘who was better Cech or Lehmann’ discussion as such, but I would like to point out the quality of the defence and midfield Jens had protecting him over the large number of questionable players (in regards to defending) we would field in the line-ups featuring Cech. To contradict myself slightly (I know, I know…), I’d say Jens provided far more world-class moments than Arsenal Cech, but that also came with a large amount of risk. Jens was regarded as a ‘bit mental’ for good reason and if you remember his tenure well… Read more »
Cech was good for us but I’d still have preferred to sign him at the age Chelsea did. Regarding Gallas, it’s all part of the same package – attitude and ability – isn’t it? You need both. The jury is out on Luiz as you say.
I would say if we had signed Cech when he was 25 it would have been a top class signing but we signed him when his career was finished – he cost us a lot of points. I have the same feeling about Luiz…
I think we’ll be back in for a cb in jan. maybe even upa again
You obviously didn’t watch Arsenal when Cech was in goal. He didn’t cost us lots of points, in fact he saved us in many occasions. His crime is that he wasn’t as outstanding as he was in his Chelsea years but if you look at the big picture, he was a reliable GK who made few mistakes, but also he made too few magical saves for our taste. This was made worse when we saw how he’s not suited for the new “play out from the back” policy being forced by Emery. Few keepers are well suited for this, Leno… Read more »
Holding?
I like Holding and hope he turns into a terrific player but at this point the reality is he’s a prospect who has only played a minimal number of games. He’s a long ways from being a proven player let alone making him club captain
I don’t consider it a binary option. Saliba will come to ilus one year older, but a PL novice, and still a teenager.
I would like two top quality young CBs and a still-young Holding. That should cover 60 games a season, I juries and loss of form.
Saliba, Holding and Upamecano.
Add a physical defensive midfielder and back up RB and we have a very competitive team – with the right manager.
Guy cost £7M. I think we got absolutely what we paid for.
Cech was fine but having him also cost us Szceszny
Not sure it did. Wenger had made his mind up (wrongly) about Szceszny and we still had the useless Gazidis around to do a shitty deal…. I would have gone for Cech and Szceszny and sold Ospina
Probably wages(?), but I’m a bit surprised a premier league team didn’t go after him.
A solid player and I hope it works out for him.
Agree. His major perceived weakness–that he plays cautiously with square and backward passes–may have been under instruction, or because of the need for safety in that position under Wenger’s systems. His tendency, as I think someone pointed out here, was to follow his pass–very safe, but not an attacking move. But he looked much more capable of passing and immediately moving forward looking for a return in a few matches at the end of the season before last. I’m not saying he can be a top player; it is right he should move on. But he is quite capable of… Read more »
Hopefully we can offload him and a few others, either on loan or by selling them, before the 2 September deadline. As always though their current wages are a drawback.
We really need to free up some headroom on the overall wage bill to accommodate contract extensions (and their associated additional costs) for the likes of Auba, Lacazette etc.
Also, it will free up space to give more opportunities to youngsters in the squad, something that Emery has indicated he wants to do more of.
I’m sure we opened up a fair amount of space for salaries with Ramsey, Cech and Welbeck going. So was less worried there than the upfront costs that needed to be spent on replacements.
So all the Summer transfers have joined us for the love of it, with no salary? I don’t think so (although it would be great if they did). No, money was certainly saved, as you correctly state, from the departures Ramsey, Cech and Welbeck but a great deal has been replaced by the likes of Pepe, Cabellos, Tierney etc. By the way, the actual transfer costs were almost all on extended installments – one of the reasons that some deals took so long to finalise. Hardly any transfers are paid up front. We’ll need to pay both Auba and Lacazette… Read more »
I’m sure the three newcomers won’t be earning anything like the three that left.
And Ozil got lucky, I’m sure the players won’t expect anything like that figure. They definitely won’t get that much elsewhere.
They won’t be getting the same, I didn’t suggest they would be – but a good proportion of the money “saved” earlier on will have been used, and this against the background of needing to cut the overall wage bill quite substantially. I don’t know what Auba and Lacazette want (or, more accurately, what their agents think they can get) and neither do you. However, most people accept that it’s human nature to look at the best paid player (albeit one who certainly does not justify his wage) and use that amount as a parameter in the negotiations. I’m not… Read more »
Elneny may not be a world beater but he always put in 100%, never complained even when he could rightly have felt hard done by, and seems a thoroughly good guy. I’ve never understood the vehemence people feel towards players who aren’t in the running for Ballon d’Or.
Agreed, though we haven’t had many of them recently.
I don’t recall any major mistakes elneny ever made – he was never going to light the premiership up but he was pretty reliable unlike the calamitous Xhaka who is either giving the ball away in key areas or getting booked.
Agreed, I’d still prefer to keep Elneny over Xhaka.
Totally agree. Hes not a first team player, but gives 100% and seems one of the good guys. I’d like him to leave, but there shouldn’t be any back biting
A professional through and through. Hope he gets to go to a new club and performs for them.
Solid player. Can keep the ball ticking in midfield. Hope he finds regular playing time wherever he ends up.
Remember from his highlight reel, from back when we signed him, that he seemed to have a propensity to shoot from distance – and to somewhat great effect! Apart from his goal against Barca, I can’t really remember him doing much in that department for us..
I think Wenger got in his ear about shooting from distance…
https://www.espn.com/soccer/arsenal/story/2859744/arsenal-midfielder-mohamed-elneny-arsene-wenger-told-me-to-shoot-less
That’s what I think happened. He had a crack or two in his early games and was told not to do it anymore (not bad efforts from memory). I love Wenger but his refusal to let people shoot from distance occasionally was maddening.
Top corner bound curler against Barca from about 21 yards, beautiful beautiful goal..
If he gets the move I hope he does well. I like Elneny. He’s a reasonable squad player. Doesn’t really do anything wrong. Just doesn’t do anything amazing (although that goal against Barcelona was pretty damn good).
In other news I just saw that Barcelona beat Betis 5-2. Betis goalscorers were Fekir and Moron. Who else do they have in their team? Eediot, Wallie, Ploncker, Prik…
Thank you for that…you’ve probably made my day!
Unpopular but true opinion.
1) Elneny is a hardworking average player like Jenkinson but better. BUT that’s not good enough for us bc we need capabilities not just hardwork or loyalty alone.
2) Koscielny did us a favour but we failed to take advantage instead got sidetracked and panic bought a band aid no better than Mustafi at most.
Unfortunately too many fans prefer to see their own reality.
Why must you always attack everybody?
Your points are sometimes quite valid, but you come off like a right cunt
Mustafi’s unofficial agent speaks again. We’ve all moved on – and hopefully your hero will too – why don’t you and stop making a prat of yourself.
Another mention of Mustafi. Odd – and getting odder.
Look, here’s a suggestion – try posting something on a topic that’s nothing to do with your hero, and don’t mention him! I know, it’ll be tough, but give it a go – you’ll feel better.
“Unfortunately too many fans prefer to see their own reality” well said
Mustafi overdose. There is no antidote for Santori.
I like Elneny, but he’s essentially Denilson +1, and as we have transitioned away from the Wenger era, a side to side passer isn’t something we need in an already congested midfield. Hopefully he can find a team to make the most of his abilities.
Average player brought in to make up numbers.
BUT we need capability.
Right now we need to get our tactics right to get the best out of the midfield.
Still see fools(with no Mustafi) now pinning the blame on Granit who did nothing wrong.
The same fools prefer not to see what is right in front of them, two glaring SideshowBob mistakes predictable from our panic buy and lack of proper effort to address long standing issue in defense.
Next they will be saying elneny was solid. Go figure.
Mustafi worship alert – and rude with it. You just can understand that Mustafi is old news now, can you? Very sad.
* can’t
So that could mean Elneny ends up alongside the shirt shifter.
Not so much a
capture' as alifeline’Sell.
presumably his dad is aware the Premier League window has closed? He’ll have to land outside the Prem in the coming weeks for regular games.
Best of luck to him. Hope he lands at a good club for a decent fee.
I noticed blogs mentioned in this mornings blog that there is increasing negativity toward Xhaka and he is a bit surprised. However, although I am not one for slating players, I can see where this is coming from as Mustafi is now out of the picture fans are looking for the manager to address other issues in the squad – hence the negativity towards Luiz and Xhaka. Luiz is not seen as the ideal solution to our defensive woes and Xhaka has divided opinion for some time and is considered too slow by those of us that want to see… Read more »
(win,lose or draw) We don’t deserve a Coward as a coach
We need a real protagonist and not a fake protagonist
Emery is not the man we need.. Arsenal fans open your eyes before we make things more difficult for the next coach!
You’ve posted the exact same comment on another article. It’s not even relevant to this one. Get a life.