Mohamed Elneny has revealed he was reduced to tears after being offered a new contract by Arsenal earlier this year.
At the time, Elneny had suffered a serious knee injury that would keep him sidelined until September, leaving his Gunners future in doubt with his previous contract expiring in June.
Arsenal, however, handed the 31-year-old a new one-year deal to help facilitate his recovery and ensure he remains the current squad’s longest-serving player.
🗣️ “Totally deserved. He’s an absolute joy to have him at the club. I think what the club has done is absolutely brilliant. We value the people that we have and we are going to stick with them in difficult moments.”
Mikel Arteta on Mohamed Elneny’s contract extension. 🇪🇬✍️ pic.twitter.com/dc2kGl408e
— Football Daily (@footballdaily) February 24, 2023
“It was one of the happiest days in my life,” he told Standard Sport. “The way they spoke to me, the way the entire club was happy about this decision, they made me cry this day.
“Arsenal Football Club, they know I love them 100 per cent, so much. They know I don’t want to leave. I want to stay and finish my career there, 100 per cent.
“I was injured and my contract was finishing and I could not play anymore last season, and they came straight away after I got injured, the next day and said: ‘Mo, what contract will it have to be? We love you here and we and we want you to stay’. Really, this club is great.”
Elneny has featured for eight minutes this season – in the 1-0 EFL Cup win over Brentford in September – but is already planning for life after football after creating his own football club “Elneny FC”.
You can read more of the interview here.
We all did mo, we all did… In a positive way of course
Bongo gooner…Is this what Odimba has been doing lately? Too bad, we will never have “Visit Gabon”.
Lucky guy, earns more in a week than most do per annum, gets to train and keep fit so doesn’t pay gym membership and appears ocassionally for the greatest club in the world.
Your generosity of spirit is an inspiration to all of us.
You wouldn’t take this up if offered? I’d consider myself very lucky.
So does Mo, that’s why he cried!
So we agree…he is lucky, as I said in the statement of fact above. Unsure what there is to disagree with in what I said.
It’s not luck, he has been a good servant to the club and his contributions were recognized by the club and are in line with our values. Just like Santi, we take care of our own who have held the club values through their service.
Agreed, he’s not lucky he is at our club. He is getting a lot less than the national average pay, he’ll pay a lot for training and keeping fit and he’ll play all the time for us, we’re not the greatest ever team just an average team. It makes a lot more sense when you invert what I said. Apologies, you’re all correct.
Generosity? Well do you really think that from an cutthroat American Capitalist?
Does your job have a salary and benefits package?
I am already thinking about what will happen at the end of Mo’s current contract. The position of Director of the Academy is gone already. Has the position given to Freddie Llungberg to have a broad view of the game from the stand been filled?
Luck has nothing to do with it. Mo chose to join Arsenal. And the way he has been treated by the club suggests he made an excellent choice.
Every single professional footballer is lucky, but Elneny is one of those who actually realises it.
In fact everbody with the ability and opportunity to play football is lucky, it’s all relative.
Anyone with two legs is lucky.
Anyone not having their home flattened or having to run for their life is lucky.
Seriously love this man! Gives everything when on the pitch and one of the truly stand up characters in world football. Hope he becomes a coach and is part of the Arsenal setup forever. Guys like this stop the billionaires from completely ruining everything. You da man Mo!
Arsenal when there’s an injured player to sign:
I wish I knew how to quit you
*probably works better on Twitter with the actual brokeback mountain screen grab…
Keep digging, we can still see your hats.
Twist n Shout, baby!
When Arteta was asked in an interview recently to define Arsenal in one word he immediately without a second hesitation said “class”. This is the reason why I became a fan of this club and these are exactly the ways they keep showing it – by being classy and keeping around people like Elneny who personify that class.
Players say that Guardiola doesn’t show a lot of class. Having been starved of winning the league for 20 years, I will trade this class for top quality.
His time at the club is obviously over but I would never change our class for trophies like Chelsea.
“I would never change our [anything] for [anything] like Chelsea.”
There you go, upgraded free of charge 🙂
Arsenal vs Elneny F.C. in 20 years time
I’m sure Stan is looking at Elneny FC and wondering when is the ideal time to for us to become Kroenke Sports and Entertainment FC.
Get why people will be unhappy we have given another year contract to an older injury prone mid who has been average at best throughout his career for us, can’t think of one game he was MOTM, but remember he hit a pearly once, he wasn’t or isn’t that bad, can’t think of a game he made a rash tackle that cost us or he ever got sent off, still love the guy and Arsenals class.
Diaby. Carzola. Kos The Boss. Arteta and the BFG to an extent. Arsenal have form in such instance. Class is permanent. Integrity is everlasting. Long may it be so.
It actually bugs me that so many gooners don’t know how to spell the name of one of our greatest recent players.
It’s not “Carzola” or “Carzorla”
It’s Cazorla
Ok.
To be fair, would rather have Elneny in the team than Havertz?🤷🏾♂️
No
Imagine Havertz with Elneny’s effort and committment?
does havertz lack commitment?
Long live Elneny!
Death to Interlull!
Brilliant. This is why I love Arsenal. We take care of our own. It’s rare these days that football clubs take care of players like actual human beings rather than commodities to be sold and discarded when they find themselves on the fringes. It’s why Arsene gave Diaby a contract while he was injured, because he believed in the boy. It’s why we gave Cazorla a contract, so that he could recover from his horror injury without having to worry about the financial side of things, and why Cazorla was also moved by the gesture. I’m glad that the current… Read more »
I’d really love to agree with you and everything you’ve said is accurate. But I also can’t help but remember how many staff the club laid off during the worst of the pandemic, how many people were thrown onto the scrap heap during the worst national crisis in modern times and unnecessarily so. When Ozil’s monthly wage would’ve kept everyone on the payroll until a brighter time. And, as we can see from them outsourcing the ticketing, the result has not been good.
100% agree. And while there is a lot of talk, rightly so, about the classiness of our club. Let’s not get distracted by last seasons performances and the summer largess in the transfer market and loose sight of the fact the Kroenkes are very very un-classy people.
Well said. Credit where due, the Kroenke’s have changed approach to great success recently. But thier business practices are often immoral and people seem to have conveniently forgot their track record since the results changed. Leopards and spots.
Some really salty comments about mo’s contract. He’s been a reliable player for us over the years , and is clearly loved and respected by all at the club. no brainer to keep hold of him. love u Mo
Class
Re-signing Elneny sent a message to young players here and elsewhere, that at Arsenal if you work hard everyday and give your all for the team on the pitch and off it, we will look after you whatever happens.
You gotta love this guy.
Hopefully one day, when his playing days are over, Mo can come back to the club in some form of a coaching/development capacity.
He is one of us, no doubt about it.
Mo ELneny does exactly what it says on the tin:
Gooner through and through!
May be silly, but 2-1 up at Liverpool away last season – kept thinking this is perfect scenariuo for Elneny, but alas, he wasn’t available. By no means flashy, but the man will do a job. Think Utd away a couple seasons ago, next to Partey. He is so disciplined…
Top man Elneny and an underrated player. Would be happy to have him stick around for another season or 2
Always loved his commitment to the team. He’s not the most talented, most athletic, etc., but there is nobody that puts forth more effort when he plays than Elneny. You always know what you’ll get from him.