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Arsene Wenger confirms signing of international midfielder

By on January 14, 2016

Arsene Wenger has confirmed that Mohamed Elneny is now an Arsenal player after completing his protracted move from FC Basel – although there is still no official announcement on Arsenal.com.

Elneny has been strongly linked with a move to the Emirates in recent weeks with ESPN reporting last week that we’d sent a delegation over to Switzerland to finalise a £7m deal.

The boss admitted earlier this week that a deal was being complicated by work permit issues but it looked as though we were on the verge of completing the transfer with Sky Sports reporting on Wednesday that Elneny had arrived in London to rubber-stamp his move.

The 23-year-old is understood to have agreed terms on a four-and-a-half year contract and has already completed his medical, so we’ve just been waiting for official word from Arsenal that the deal is done.

It looks as though everything is now finalised as Arsene told reporters last night that Elneny is now considered an Arsenal player and he could even make his debut against Stoke on Sunday.

Speaking after our draw at Liverpool, the boss is quoted by the Mirror as saying:

“Elneny will of course join us. He has joined us. We will see if he can qualify for Sunday.”

There is still nothing up on Arsenal.com to officially annonuce the deal, but obviously it must be ‘done’ if Arsene is telling the press, so it looks as though we’ve made our first signing of the January window.

Elneny will provide us with another vital option in midfield and give us a real alternative to Mathieu Flamini in the holding role while Coquelin continues to recover from knee surgery.

I doubt we’ll see the Egyptian international start against Stoke as it’s hardly the ideal game to introduce him into Premier League football but he could make an appearance off the bench.