As feared, Arsenal have confirmed that Mohamed Elneny has suffered a significant knee injury and has subsequently undergone surgery.
It’s believed the Egypt international picked up the issue in training between the 3-0 win over Oxford United and the north London derby.
The club haven’t put a timeline on his return but have warned he’ll be out for an ‘extended period’. Given we’re heading into February, we can assume he’ll miss a big chunk of the second half of the season, if not the whole thing.
It’s a terrible shame for Mo who deservedly earned a contract extension in the summer and is a much-loved member of the squad.
The Gunners have been aware of the significance of Elneny’s injury for some time but didn’t want to go public before a replacement had been sourced. We initially targeted Brighton’s Moises Caicedo but after two bids were rejected, turned attention to Chelsea’s Jorginho.
The Italy international, 31, is at London Colney undertaking his medical this afternoon and will put pen to paper on an 18-month deal. He should be available for the trip to Everton on Saturday.
This sucks!
Get well soon, Mo!
Big MO. Never complains. Get well the best Egyptian in the league. We shall win the title for you.
Get well soon Mr Elneny, its really unfortunate if he’s unlikely to feature again. If there is one player that deserves a big send off after wrapping up the league title it’s him.
Any chance we can roll out Mo in his knee brace? I’d seriously rather than that tainted blue overrated scumbag that we’re about to signed.
I assume this means Jorghino is done. Was nervous they might shaft us by pulling the plug at the last minute.
Well there was the issue when Tadd Bollock heard about our bid and pulled out his cheque book and threw lots of wild numbers around the room. Someone told him he already owns this player but that didn’t stop him from gazumping himself.
I bet he gazumps himself a lot. He seems like the type.
Gazumps himself into a frenzy.
Yep he’s a total gazumper.
Total Gazumping Ecstasy!
Dry-gazumping is his specialty
Unlikely that they would have done that. They need to trim down squad numbers because of all the incoming players and £12 million for a 31 year old that they signed for around £50 million eight years ago is good business for them.
*I’ve just read that he only had six months left on his contract, so even better business.
18 months apparently. 12 millions. A little underwhelming, but maybe sensible in the circumstances. If he comes hungry he could be helpful. He’s only 4 months older than Casemiro. You can’t really blame him for wanting to get out of mid table. He’s too old to be waiting around at the starting point of a rebuild project. All being well he’s coming hungry to add to his medal haul.
Can’t we bring back Charlie Patino instead of buying a devil in a blue dress?
Get well soon Mo Elneny. As for the Caicedo debacle, i must confess i believe there was a certain amount of hubris in NOT identifying other options . Now we are stuck with Jorghino. I hope our title bid does not get affected, and we win the league. Come on Gunners!!!
Who were these other options? I must admit I don’t really get this poor planning narrative around the midfield. This has come about because of Elneny being injured during the window. It is notoriously difficult to get clubs to part with player’s during January, as Brighton have shown with Caicedo and it was obvious West Ham wouldn’t entertain Rice in the midst of a relegation battle. Pretty obvious we wanted prem experience, so I’m really struggling on who out there was a better option than Jorginho unless we planned to rely on Lokonga?
Patino recall. Matt Smith. Arteta out of retirement would be less embarrassing.
I’m all for Arteta coming out of retirement but only if his hair isn’t affected. At the age of 40, is his hair able to withstand the physical strains it would be subjected to?
That hair could withstand reentry into Earths atmosphere!!
I’m with you Kris. Too many clowns crying we’re not spunking out 10s of millions more pounds on someone who wasn’t part of our thinking till Mo got injured
Vlahovic, Mudryk, Caicedo. How does the saying go? Fool me once….
Zinny and Jesus, not bad for plan B’s.
Look how vlahovic is doing at his beloved Juve… bullet dodged imo
I do not. Think it was matter of hubris. Clubs id players in order of preference we hardly ever hear of plan B or C for a reason. I think it’s unfair on Edu, you don’t alwsys get what you wnat and this transaction dictated by the seller we had no leverage. It’s alos ironic that fans wanted a 70 million plus year with a only a a season under his belt, god forbid we signed him and he flops it would been Edu out. Jorgihmo might not. Be sexy signing but it’s a pragmatic one in a crazed market.… Read more »
At least he scored his customary one banger for the season
Oh Mo!
If it was his back he could see a Cairo-practor. I’ll get my coat…
Mot the greatest player but a top Giza.
He’ll be stuck in physio-pharoah-py for a while…
His Mummy will take care of him.
You’ve won this thread as far as I’m concerned.
I think you’re in de nile.
Not sure about de nile but i’m definitely Sadat Mo’s misfortune.
Unfortunately he’s a croc at the Mo.
Why to go public today?
It will just raise the value for everyone we look at
We’ve gone public now because we’ve just signed Jorginho.
Public relations department going into overdrive due to fans having the correct reaction to signing another old fucker from chelsea
Sad for him. Mo is a good squad player. But he’s no Thomas Partey so this news is somewhat disappointing – not totally devastating.
Apparently you haven’t seen who they’re brining as a replacement…
lol
This Jorginho deal gives me the creeps. Such a shame Sambi hasn’t been able to settle well. I like the guy and would rather have seen him deputise than
If we didn’t have a chance to stay top I would’ve agreed with you about giving minutes to Sambi.
2 seasons ago most of us would’ve taken Jorginho over Xhaka. Arteta will have a plan to get the most out of him. He’s not top drawer but he has a winner’s mentality having won some pretty large pieces of silverware, which can only bode well for the squad as a whole. He’s definitely more reliable than the hiding midfielder we have in Sambi.
18 months ago people were talking about Jorginho for the Ballon D’Or.
Now suddenly he’s useless and Sambi is preferable as backup for Partey in a title run-in?
I wasn’t delighted with the Jorginho deal but I think it actually makes a lot of sense. He is also an obvious upgrade on Elneny.
From Partey, Elneny, Sambi to Partey, Jorginho, Kiwior. This is a good window.
10/10.
Solved forward and midfield issues for 32M pounds in this crazy market.
Where can I find the happy pills you’re scoffing?!
Unusual positivity from you but I like it. Getting behind the club. Not my favorite signing but he’s better than what we have.
by breaking the wage structure and adding another player we’re going to have to pay to leave in 6 months i don’t think we’ve ‘solved midfield’
So far so good. We knew he had such a bad injury. So we thought it’s not bad to make it public, send Sambi on loan, and work on getting THAT guy on loan instead of both. I know they know what they do, but I simply can’t understand it.
Do they know what they’re doing or is it a desperate attempt to justify the bad signing by saying “well mo is done for the year so we had to”
TBH I am almost with you and don’t buy the idea that since Edu and Mikel has done some good business on transfers, they always do the right thing. They have done terrible ones as well, and I guess this one counts on that front.
Based on what? Guy hasn’t played one game for us yet and man just wanna hate. Honestly at this point it’s done so get on board or jog tf on – title charge needs none of this negativity, it’s contrary to everything that’s been built this season and prior
Based on all the metrics we’ve been mentioning since the possibility was announced. He’s old, he’s expensive, he doesn’t fit the project profile.
He was simply available and we’ve done Chelsea another favor
What?????
Wish Mo all the best in his recovery great squad player to have around but the timing of this being announced is to offset the backlash of signing Jorginho me thinks.
Get well soon, mo.
Get lost, jorginho.
I totally get the frustration with Jorginho, but he’s soon gonna be our player, and we need to support him and the team for the rest of the season. They need all the support they can get!
Come on Jorginho, make us proud!
Yep, for better or worse it’s done. Let’s get behind the team and smash this thing!
Man, share that kool-aid around. Because the idea of cheering for that blue scummy schizter makes me feel ill.
Cheer for the shirt and don’t look who’s in it. That’s what I’m going to do. Maybe (hopefully) Jorginho play out of his skin and makes me eat the biggest humble pie ever baked in the history of sport. It’s being reported that Mikel wanted him and the players are on board so that’s what counts I guess. I’ll feel better when we’ve smashed Everton and their scummy new manager, this week feels interminable.
Oh yeah, Everton have hired the human ballsack as manager. I’d forgotten that.
he might be an arsenal player on paper but for me he will never ever be one of us. i will never support him. never ever.
That’s a real shame, I wondered if the injury wasn’t too bad and Jorginho was being brought in to replace Sambi who was going on loan.
Get well soon Mo. Hope the 10 game medal-qualifying rule is out. Good servant.
Glad it’s 18 months. Serial winner, who can help get us over the line. Definite upgrade. High hopes for Patino. This should be £10/12m, £15 tops. Not a lot of options out there.
He’s on a list with Fred, Fabinho, Henderson, Andre Gomes and formerly Xhaka. Just not dynamic.
It’s 5 appearances. So it should be okay.
Got to feel for Mo. He’s picked up a couple of bad injuries in the last couple of years.
Wishing him a speedy recovery.
Hope to see you soon Mo
Sending tons of love, like you have sent us through the years.
Legend in his own way
Wtf? This guy will fuck us up. He hasn’t turned playing for Chelsea lately, what makes you think he’s going to turn up for the gunners now?
Jorginho that is.
Classy that the club have renewed his contract. He will be missed in the run-in.
Looks like this will be us for the rest of the season
1st 11
Ramsdale
White Saliba Gabriel Zinchenko
Partey
Ødegaard Xhaka
Saka Jesus Martinelli
2nd 11
Turner
Tomiyasu Holding Kiwior Tierney
Jorginho
Vieira Smith-Rowe
Nelson Nketiah Trossard
I am pretty sure that if I were an Arsenal player I would be Elneny. Kind of in the background, a reasonably reliable pair of boots, really just happy to be there.
I love the guy. I hope he gets well soon.
Heard they plan to offer him another 1 year contract end of season. Knowing his love for the club, he would sign it. A true professional, a true Gunner, always ready to stand up and be counted.