Arsenal have confirmed the signing of midfielder Mohamed Elneny from FC Basel on their official website. The 23-year-old Egypt international was reportedly bought for a fee of approximately £5m.
Elneny was at FC Basel for three years and made almost 100 appearances in the Swiss Super League. In that time, the Swiss club won the league three years in a row. In the 2015/16 season, he has already made 28 appearances in all competitions and has scored six goals, including two in the Europa League.
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He played for Egyptian Premier League club El Mokawloon before making the move to Basel and had also represented Egypt reach the quarter-finals stage in the 2012 Olympics in London.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is hopeful he can be selected in the squad to face Stoke City this Sunday. Elneny can play provided he is registered on time. “Elneny will of course join us. He has joined us. We'll see if he can qualify for Sunday,” Wenger said after the 3-3 draw with Liverpool at Anfield.
Elneny will also be eligible to play for the Gunners in the Champions League. Having helped Basel qualify for the Round of 32 in the Europa League, he now has a chance to play Barcelona in the Champions League Round of 16 next month.
The Egyptian midfielder is well known for his immense workrate on the pitch. In the 2014/15 Champions League, he was the player who covered the most distance in the competition until Basel were knocked out by FC Porto. It has been the same case in this season’s Europa League.
Wenger expects a busy January transfer window in the EPL
While talking about transfers, Wenger was of the belief that more clubs would be active in the winter transfer window this season as they look to strengthen their squads.
“I would say for the media you could have some good news this January transfer window,” Wenger said. “I believe many clubs will be active. You go from the clubs who are down in the table like (Aston) Villa, who have to do something, to the clubs at the top. I'm sure many of them could be very active.
“My prediction is that it could be one of the most active transfer windows in January that you have seen.”
