It’s almost starting to become old news here in the Football Transfer Tavern that everything is pointing towards FC Basel’s Mohamed Elneny becoming Arsenal’s first signing of the January transfer window.
For whatever reason, the transfer still hasn’t been completed as yet with work permit issues having had to be sorted out but everybody is expecting the move to completed in a matter of hours now rather than days.
In all honesty, a large majority of our Gooners in the tavern hadn’t even heard of Elneny prior to the rumours spiking around Christmas time but they are willing to get behind the Egyptian international as he bids to become a dominant force in the second half of the Gunners’ promising Premier League campaign.
After all, our Arsenal fans are usually delighted to see anybody new arriving at Emirates Stadium given how stringent Arsene Wenger is with new signings and it’s certainly refreshing to see the club moving early this time around.
Arsenal are in desperate need of first team bodies at the moment with the club’s seemingly annual injury crisis having struck yet again and Arsene Wenger has been forced to play literally the same starting eleven for a few weeks now.
When it comes to Elneny, the 23-year-old is being brought in not only to strengthen the immediate numbers but also to compete with Francis Coquelin long-term with every expectation that Mikel Arteta, Tomas Rosicky and Mathieu Flamini will be released come the end of the season.
But do you really know who Arsenal are signing? Test your knowledge by checking out out five Mohamed Elneny facts.
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Click on the image below to reveal the five things you didn’t know about Arsenal’s imminent signing Mohamed Elneny.
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Long distance shooting is one of his strengths
Despite being billed as a defensive-minded midfielder, Mohamed Elneny has already showcased his ability from long range with a series of cracking efforts from distance.
Everybody knows abut Arsenal’s pass and move style whereby they try and walk the ball into the net but in Elneny, it will be refreshing to welcome somebody who has specialised in decent efforts from outside the box.
Registering a total of six goals already this season for FC Basel, Elneny has proved that he can chip in with a few efforts for himself and with Arsenal going for the league title this campaign, goals from any source are of course always welcome.
He arrived at FC Basel shortly after a Chelsea reject
Having played for the same Egyptian side – El Mokawloon – as Mohamed Salah, the pair moved onto bigger and better things in joining FC Basel in 2013 and 2012 respectively.
With Salah joining up at St Jakob Park first, Elneny soon followed for the 2012/13 campaign.
With Chelsea flop Salah currently out on loan at Serie A giants Roma, one of his two goals scored for the Blues in the Premier League actually came against Arsenal in that infamous 6-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge.
In Elneny’s time spent at FC Basel to date, the Egyptian international has played at the highest level in the Champions League facing English sides before and with the Barcelona game to come for the Gunners, Elneny won’t be cup tied and is eligible to be registered due to only playing Europa League football with the Swiss side this term.
He’s more similar to Aaron Ramsey than Francis Coquelin
Arsenal supporters have been crying out for a new defensive midfielder for years now, not simply in the last couple of transfer windows alone with the likes of William Carvalho and Lars Bender highly sought-after.
But the player they’re receiving in Mohamed Elneny isn’t necessarily a defensive midfielder. Having proved he’s capable in that position for FC Basel in recent years, the Egyptian’s game is more about winning the ball back and then pressing forward in a box-to-box kind of role.
Most similar to Aaron Ramsey in the current Gunners set up, what does seem certain is that like Francis Coquelin previously, Arsene Wenger will drum into Elneny that defensive duties must come first, especially in the second half of the season where Arsenal have to be ruthlessly efficient to claim a first league title in years.
He’s a winner after winning three consecutive league titles
While most may not know too much about Elneny, he will certainly be arriving at Arsenal with a winning pedigree.
Albeit in the inferior Swiss Super League, Elneny has won three league titles on the bounce with the first of these coming back in the 2012/13 campaign.
No matter what level professional footballers are playing at, winning is a habit and incorporating somebody who is so used to success such as Elneny into the current dressing room could be a key move for Arsene Wenger’s side this season.
He was a competitor at the London 2012 Olympics
Our last fact concerning Arsenal’s imminent signing was that he forged a part of the Egypt squad that competed in the football tournament at our very own London 2012 Olympic Games four years ago.
With Egypt crashing out at the quarter-final stage to Japan after qualifying through their group, Elneny got to try his hand at competing in a major tournament with Egypt usually failing to qualify for the World Cup itself and having surprisingly failed to qualify for the last three Africa Cup of Nations finals.
