Arteta turned down multiple offers for Arsenal midfielder in January

Mikel Arteta and Edu had a massive clearout of peripheral Arsenal squad players in January and now has a small compact squad made up of mostly his own signings and academy players. Nearly every departure (excluding Aubameyang) were only bit-part players that had struggled to get any game time in the first six months of the season so were unlikely too play at all with only League games remaining to fight for.

But there was one player that has only six months remaining on his contract and has only featured in a few games that Arteta actually turned down bids for, the Egyptian midfielder Mo Elneny.

This was revealed by Elneny’s agent Alaa Nazmi in an interview on an African Radio Chanel

“Mohamed Elneny doesn’t follow social media directly, but sometimes someone from his circle would send him news about him or criticism,” Nazmi told Mega FM (as transcribed in KingFut).

“The player’s contract expires at the end of the current season, and Michael Arteta, Arsenal’s coach, rejected all offers that came to Elneny in and asked that him to stay with the team.

“Newcastle United, Valencia of Spain, Lyon of France, and the largest known Turkish clubs, Galatasaray and Fenerbahce, wanted to sign Elneny, but in the end Arteta and the Arsenal management refused.”

It does make sense to keep the hardworking Egyptian, considering that we only have Xhaka, Partey and Lokonga in our midfield and it would have been a big risk to let him go. It’s not like we would have gained much considering he only has six months left on his contract.

He must be feeling a bit let down right now after Egypt were beaten on penalties in the AFCON FINAL, but I’m sure he’ll pull his socks up and get on with it….

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