If Arsenal are looking to raise funds this summer, then it’s likely Mohamed Elneny will be high up the list to receive a ‘Dear John’ letter from Raul and Edu.
The big question is where he might end up once he’s been given the elbow and how much we might get for him.
The Egypt international, who is under contract at the Emirates until the summer of 2022, was farmed out on loan to Besiktas last August and the Istanbul giants have flirted with the idea of keeping him ever since.
With 33 appearances under his belt, the 28-year-old has been an integral part of the set-up at Vodafone Park this season and despite a few off-pitch issues – there were reports he’d not been paid on time – he’s sounded quite positive about staying.
In April, Elneny’s agent claimed Besiktas wanted to extend the loan for another season but new reports suggest he’ll return to London at the end of the season, at which point he’ll sit down with former teammate Mikel Arteta to discuss his future.
Arsene Wenger shelled out around £11 million to sign the midfielder from Basel in January 2016. Once upon a time, we’d have been confident of making that back with interest. Now we’re not so sure.
Past suitors have included Bordeaux, Galatasaray and Olympiacos. If anyone knows of any others, do let Arsenal know.
Feel like arteta might quite like Mo, works hard and could play dm and cb. Wouldn’t be shocked if he stayed next season (don’t get me wrong I think he should be sold)
No he cannot play CB!!
Despite my name I don’t think he’s very good and would much rather have Willock, AMN, maybe even like Miguel Azeez if he’s near ready, in the back up roles to help develop them
He’s an athletic midfielder who can pass sideways. Doesn’t sound bad in CB especially considering we have to lose a lot of current options
Olympiacos have better midfielders than Elneny…will be warming the bench if he ends up there…
Yes, but do we?
I don’t understand why everyone hates on Elneny when he came off a solid season under Wenger, then Unai didn’t like him, never used him and he was off. He’s tidy on the ball, never loses the ball and always a safe passer, to his own detriment. Gilberto Silva has gone out in public saying he’s a good player. He’s NOT a flashy player but he’s a player, like Monreal, that gives you a consistent performance week after week giving you a solid 7/10 performance with LITTLE mistakes. If Arteta chooses to keep him in the team, I trust Arteta’s… Read more »
7/10 every match… More like 5/10. I agree he is consistent, but I cannot see what he can bring that will help this team
I agree. He couldn’t be less effective than Xhaka.
Montreal was a solid B+ player who consistently gave 110% every match, aimed with the versatility to be deployed in multiple positions. Elneny is closer to B- level player who possesses a rather predictable set of skills. While I’m all for squad depth, I’d rather if we looked elsewhere.
I’m not sure about Elneny’s defensive output or progressive passing but he does link the play really well and always shows for the ball. I’ve never seen him play badly.
Wouldn’t be the worst squad player and certainly don’t understand the hate for him – he doesn’t make errors that lead to goals.
Elneny has a very similar style to how arteta played. He’s just not as intelligent as arteta.
Why do people keep using the word ‘hate’ in such ridiculous fashion? I have never heard anyone hurl abuse at Elneny. I have heard plenty say he isn’t good enough though – including myself. That’s not ‘hate’, it’s just an opinion….and you know, given that we couldn’t find anyone to buy him last summer, that opinion is probably correct.
How about if were worded “hate for the idea of having him as an Arsenal player”?
I would have rather seen him in Sunday’s game as part of the back three than Kolasinac.
He will run and run, and will do a job. So could be a useful squad member
Sounds like Guendouzi. At some point though, that’s not enough for Arsenal to be able to compete with the top clubs. There needs to also be end product. Ramsey was a good example of this. He combined the running with scoring and a few assists. We need more of that rather than just high energy.
aae top club ? we might finish 10th this season and still our board wont loosen it’s purse. that’s not a sign of top club.
err : We took top 4 for granted — out of top 4
.. We took europa for granted — out of europa.
If this continues we will soon be relegated or might turn into new castle.
Honestly, a club of Arsenal’s stature should be able to move players for healthy profits at regular intervals and just cannot make blunders of these sorts (i am also thinking of Ramsey, Welbz, Szczesny). Its just unprofessional if not anything else. Need more decisive leadership at the top.
I concur. Unai devalued our players (Mustafa, elneny, etc) and now Arteta is doing the same to Guendozi, Ozil, Laca, Pep, etc. We need good man-management for these players to be marketable.
Players are all being devalued b/c COVID means that only the very top clubs (i.e. those who have sugar daddies or huge amounts of cash – Bayern) can afford to pay the same inflated rates for players everyone did the past few years. That has nothing to do with how we manage players. Laca is very marketable and is routinely mentioned as an asset we could cash in on this summer as we try to rebuild the squad. Gendouzi likely as well although he seems to have attitude issues (former coach said so in addition to problems with Arteta). Ozil… Read more »
Mikel has raised the prices of every member of this team
It’s more to do with the people in power above them than the managers. They shouldn’t have let Arsene make the decisions on Sanchez and Ozil in the first place, and should have sold them at the time. They should have offered Oxlade-Chamberlain a contract way earlier than they did, instead of treating him as an afterthought (how good would he look in our central midfield now?). They should have offered Ramsey a contract way earlier so that it didn’t get to the point where he’d only sign on for £250k/week, only for them to renege on the deal because… Read more »
Someone else to play in centre back poorly
How about a Sign-Elneny-and-get-Kolasinac-free promo?
That should help get it over the line.
I have a question on how a player can be sold. I’ve seen people suggested players should be sold for whatever reason. But many of them are still at the club. Why?
Is selling and buying a player like a normal business transaction? Does it depend on the player’s consent? It appears to me it does. Otherwise, so long as the price is right for the club, the player can be sold by the club that holds the contract.
So what does it take to trade a player under contract with a club?
Thanks in advance.
US sports leagues are all unionized and player contracts are relatively standard & and effectively are with the league vs. the team. So when a US team trades a player, they in reality trade the contract which is still enforceable. The player doesn’t actually have a say in accepting the trade if they still want to be paid/ ply their trade. In European football the player has his own contract with a team (not a league) and the contract does not transfer. European teams don’t trade players – they buy the player (an asset) and have to agree to a… Read more »
While this is technically true of US sports but in practice players have some discretion in deciding where they go, and that’s doubly true for a player like LeBron James. No team wants an unhappy player in any sport.
To some extent yes. The only real leverage players have is when their contracts are running down and they tell the proposed trading team they will not sign a new one = team likely won’t want to give up assets. But if the team chooses to trade for them anyways, the only 2 options the player has are to report or retire.
What a great idea it was to extend his contract and give him the number 4 shirt. Another piece of Arsenal squad building magic ❤️
He doesn’t lose the ball, he passes, he’ll be improved by Mikel. Never say never
never
ElNeny is the exact type of player we need to move on from. As Arsenal fans, we tend to get ourselves into this false hope narrative, where somewhere in the back of our head we keep telling ourselves “but maybe if we keep him he will become better and Arteta can make him a better player.” We latch onto this 5% hope that this player will be moulded into a reliable, Arsenal-worthy player. The reality, however, is.. We need to move on. Let’s sell ElNeny before he becomes another dead wood next season. He’s not good enough for us, just… Read more »
How’s it 5%
When did his fee double from £4.5m to £11m? The only source for the latter figure was an intermediary who seems to want to attach his name to every transfer involving an Egyptian player. Surely our public end of year accounts would have picked a doubling in transfer fee, especially given how little business we did that season?
He deserves better than to be at Bordeaux with that shirt shifting twat Koscielny.
He’s a likeable, fairly good squad player.
Not all that different from Ceballos, or Xhaka (except for the likeable part). he won’t set the world on fire, he won’t set or score many (any?) goals, but he won’t cost 40M and not improve our midfield, like Ceballos.
Hmm. I’d say Ceballos is already a better player and certainly has a higher ceiling. Xhaka’s progressive passing is certainly better too. That being said I really don’t think he’s a bad player. I wouldn’t object to him being in the squad.
If we are not able to sign a new midfielder,its better to have him in the team as a back up…
I remember that amazing through ball he gave to Welbeck to smash one in against someone or other, with that awesome picture of him crouching down too see if Danny would finish it. I reckon he’s way better than people seem to reckon, and more creative than he is being presented as.
Also his hilarious tweet to Sanchez after he’d gone to Utd about failing to qualify for the WC. That was f*ckin funny!
He did the pass for Ozil’s final goal against Lundogrets (forgive spelling) where Ozil scored a beaut.
I like Elneny, he’s an all rounder and that’s fine for the squad. With Arteta’s coaching could be an effective ‘spoiler’.
We might see A ceballos elneny midfield with Xhaka in the Kola or Luiz role next season
Xhaka in LCB mightn’t be the worst. He’s mostly cut the mistakes / lapses of concentration out of his game.
And such a box to box midfielder as Elneny beside Ceballos will balance out the athleticism that will be missed out on by Kolas exclusion.
It was against CSKA Moscow away, clutch game as well. Remember another ball he played against Watford at the Emirates (when Cech saved Deeney’s penalty) that split the Watford defence in half.
Honestly not a bad squad player to have, considering we’re lacking options in midfield and quite a bit of deadwood in defence to sort out
Lousy signing…can’t believe he is still on our books. No takers for a reason.
Some people as per usual prepared to accept poor quality.
We need a MUCH better midfield. Even with current complement, we have capability short falls.
Plus Torreira, Guendouzi, Ceballos not certain of staying on, Willock still young, AMN careless for midfield.
Plenty of people need to get their heads examined.
…this is the area in the squad that needs most attention IMO.
What needs to be examined is why our players dont show up for matches, no matter who we have in our team. We have a systemic mentality issue in our team. We can improve the defence, midfield, blame ozil, Emery, and Mustafi but the main issue will not be solved. We need our players to play like professionals, with confidence, commitment, hunger. We lack them all…and lacked it for many years.
110%
Men that will run with their heads up till they drop dead. My money on Mikel keeping Elneny
It’s really weird reading so many arsenal supporters claims of not settling for mediocrity anymore, and then coming to this post and seeing a lot of people consider elneny an actual squad option for next season. Make up your minds
Next year will be a shock to lot of people, especially the Arteta believers. We might have even worse team than this year. Can’t wait to age Xhaka, Mustafi and other drab into their 30s. You people live in dream land, half a decade of disaster coming up.