According to a report from Turkish publication Fotospor, Mohamed Elneny is one of a number of midfield options that Besiktas could move for this summer.
The Egypt international made 32 appearances last season under Arsene Wenger, including 13 appearances in the Premier League, but has struggled to win over Unai Emery, who has handed him game time on just 11 occasions.
Elneny signed for Arsenal from Basel for £5 million in January 2016 and was rewarded for his steady performances with a new long-term deal this time last year.
That said, pretty much every time the transfer window opens he’s linked with an exit – Leicester have twice been linked, as have AS Roma. Given the lack of game time this year, it does feel like the player has some thinking to do about his future.
Will he end up at Besiktas? As we often warn with reports emanating from Turkey, you need to take the speculation with a pinch of salt. What is clear, is that we’re a club looking to cut its wage bill.
Besiktas record transfer fee is £7.2m so lets hope it’s not them.
Depends upon how much you think he’s worth, I guess. Would we get much more than £7.2million for him? I’m not sure. He’s hardly set The Emirates on fire with his performances, so … .
Mo is a solid player, still young and with tons of stamina. We can’t know how much Emery has improved him since he hasn’t played much, but I think he’ll succeed pretty much anywhere he will end up where he can get regular playing time as he’s an all round pro and hard worker. What you said is a bit derogatory to Elneny’s value with all due respect mate
It seems unlikely he’ll stay, he’s not been used enough to justify a first team squad wage. It’s a shame as he works hard and I thought that would appeal to Emery
Pity if he goes. Never will set the world alight but a dependable squad player to have on hand. I’d rather reduce the wage bill by moving on some of the other less value for money players that we have.
He has been a complete professional in his time here. Even this season when he’s barely kicked a ball he’s on the bench fully invested in the game and cheers in his team. Hoping he gets a move where he’ll be valued a bit higher, he deserves it.
There’s one that springs to mind, beginning with an “O” – that would save £18 million a year, but why would he go elsewhere for a massive wage cut?
O’Elneny? I’ve missed him. Is he out on loan somewhere?
Hahahahaha
If fairness Besiktas are almost always interested in picking up our garbage but rarely follow through
We need to sell players to boost Emery’s transfer fund so if we can offload Elneny then all the better. We won’t get much for him though so several more sales will be needed to increase the fund much over the £40 million or so reportedly available in the Summer. The Daily Mirror is suggesting we will try (emphasis on “try”) and offload both Mkhitaryan and Ozil, and other papers are reporting Chambers and Mustafi will also be on the market. While, for various reasons, I can’t see these sales – if we are lucky enough to sell them all… Read more »
I like Chambers in general, but he’s not panning out to be the CB we’re looking for and it’s near impossible to see him cracking into our DM situation.
Both Mkhitaryan and Ozil? With Ramsey already leaving? Wow, that’s some “speculation”. Every bit of experienced creativity gone whoooosh in one window.
Unless the club’s got big plans in that regard, not a chance in hades.
Deniz Suarez might well develop into a player, and hopefully he does, but if that’s what we’re pinning it on, LOL.
As Chambers was our best central defender when we stupidly loaned him out I totally disagree
Well, it’s what the speculation is. Chambers seems to be doing fairly well at Fulham as a midfielder, but it looks like Emery doesn’t see him as the answer to our central defender problem. I doubt we’ll get our money back on Chambers but his sale could bring in some much needed transfer funds. We’ll see.
I think Emery would like to offload Ozil as he’s not anywhere near consistent enough to justify his reported £18 million salary. I take your point about retaining midfield creativity though. Since Kroenke got full control, he’s been on a low key root and branch economy drive at Arsenal and the biggest area for cuts is the wage bill, which is too large to be sustainable long-term. The departures of the likes of Cech and Ramsey help but won’t be enough. On Suarez, he doesn’t seem to impress Emery at all and, in fairness, hardly anyone else as far as… Read more »
Mesut is the player who adds the wow factor to the team, everywhere he goes the fans want to see him. He’s also a huge part of the Adidas sponsorship and you can see how popular he was with Emirates. Apart from the fact that he’s an awesome player who’s popular with staff and team mates, it would be financial suicide to let him go. Mesut won’t be going anywhere in the summer except on holiday he wants to stay and is loved by the majority of fans.
I think/hope you’re kidding! I attend The Emirates regularly and there’s very little “wow” factor involved around Ozil most of the time he actually plays – which is not often. As for Adidas, they’re interested in success and the good publicity it brings – who’s wearing their kit doesn’t matter much. Initially, it would bad financially if Ozil left because we wouldn’t get anything like the £42 million we paid for him. Who is interested in signing an inconsistent, 30 year old player, on anywhere near his current £350,000 a week? Unfortunately, but understandably, nobody – which is a big… Read more »
Surely on balance our most saleable and most sensible attacking midfielder to off load would be Iwobi?
We’ve seen enough of him to know he’ll never be good enough for the very highest level but would demand a highish transfer fee, perhaps £25-30m from a Bournemouth/Crystal Palace type club who will look at his age and think it makes sense.
Liverpool in particular have been very good at this type of sale with the likes of Ibe, Solanke and Ward
It’s a shame a club once the best in the land, is selling squad players earning £55,000 p/w in order to make funds available.
Damn you Stan Kroenke!!
True, but 55k is a huge amount given his game time. If he isn’t going to he used then better a youngster takes his place
A useful squad player who gets on with it and never complains. He’s been good for us and I’m sure he’ll be an asset for Besiktas should be go there.
Nice lad, but don’t mind offloading him.
Ironically ‘Salt Bae’ is from Turkey. Don’t think that’s relevant but there you are