The links with Mohamed Elneny emerged on Christmas Eve.
By the time Arsenal played Bournemouth on the 28th of December, it was already pretty clear that the midfielder would soon be packing his bags for north London. However, almost two weeks later, the player hasn’t arrived.
His own teammates at Basel have wished him farewell and the club themselves have all but confirmed he’s moving to Arsenal.
We can confirm that #Elneny is currently not in training to sort out a potential transfer. That’s all we can say at the moment. #FCBasel
— FC Basel 1893 EN (@FC_Basel_en) January 5, 2016
The 23-year-old Egyptian would’ve hoped to have made his debut against Sunderland on Saturday, but that now won’t happen with the player not registered by midday on Friday. The midfielder requires a work permit, which appears to be the stumbling block, but Arsène Wenger is holding out hope that he is in the squad for Wednesday’s trip to Liverpool.
Wenger on Elneny deal: “Its complicated a little bit. We work hard on it and I hope in the next two or three days we get to the end of it.”
— James Olley (@JamesOlley) January 8, 2016
Right now, Wenger’s midfield options are thin and he will be hoping to rest Aaron Ramsey. Resting Héctor Bellerín will mean Calum Chambers plays right-back, so his central midfield options will be Mathieu Flamini, Mikel Arteta (who has only played 45 minutes for the u21s since November) and Alex Iwobi, who partnered Arteta on Tuesday.