Photo: Arsenal FC
Arsene Wenger all but confirmed the deal had gone through directly after last night’s 3-3 draw against Liverpool, but today Arsenal have formally announced that Mohamed Elneny has joined the club from Basel for a fee of somewhere around £5million.
According to the official Arsenal site, the 23-year-old Egyptian international’s move is still subject to the “completion of regulatory processes” but given that they’ve already pumped these photos out, it surely can’t be anything more than formalities left now…
PICTURES: Check out the first images of @ElNennyM in an @Arsenal shirt: https://t.co/WFHfZcdVte pic.twitter.com/sJXi2Zfv6x
— Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) January 14, 2016
A tireless, scrappy defensive midfielder, Elneny has won three consecutive league titles with Basel, making over 90 appearances in the process.
He grew up playing endless hours of football out in the street and was even forced to sleep with a ball by his father in order to subliminally “connect with the ball”.
“As a kid, I often played for 10 hours on the street,” Elneny told the Guardian.
“I think that’s when I learned to run and run without a break.”
Sounds exactly like the kind of player Arsenal have been crying out for, no?