Galatasaray opened negotiations with Mohamed Elneny, but their president vetoed the transfer due to the player’s demands.

Newcastle United v Arsenal - Premier League - St James Park Arsenal s Mohamed Elneny celebrates scoring their side s first goal of the game during the Premier League match at St James Park, Newcastle upon Tyne. Issue date: Sunday May 2, 2021. Copyright: Stu Forster
Arsenal’s Mohamed Elneny celebrates scoring their side’s first goal of the game during the Premier League match at St James Park, Newcastle upon Tyne. Issue date: Sunday, May 2, 2021. Copyright: Stu Forster

Turkish outlet Milliyet report that Mohamed Elneny was briefly on Galatasaray’s agenda towards the end of the transfer window, but it didn’t end up working out.

After receiving Elneny’s demands, Galatasaray president Burak Elmas personally vetoed the transfer, and the Super Lig club started negotiations with alternative signings.

The deal would reportedly have cost the Turkish club around €15m in total – presumably including the transfer fee, wages, agent fees, and so on.

There was also talk of Besiktas interest in Elneny, with NTV Spor claiming the club had submitted an official offer to Arsenal. But all the transfer talk seems to have died down following the midfielder’s international break injury.

Adrian Kajumba had previously reported for the Daily Mail that Elneny was one of the players in talks for a move away from Arsenal late in the transfer window.

That followed a report from TheAFCBell that a Turkish club – not believed to be Fenerbahce – had made a late enquiry for the Arsenal midfielder. Perhaps that was Besiktas, perhaps Galatasaray. Either way, it doesn’t seem likely to lead to anything now.