Arsenal: Predicting every summer sale with potential price

Mohamed Elneny – £15 million

The writing for Mohamed Elneny’s Arsenal career has been on the wall for some time. He was rarely able to establish himself as a regular starter, slipped out of the first-team thinking under Unai Emery, and was then freely loaned out to Besiktas last summer.

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The Egyptian made only five Premier League starts last season. He was substituted in all but one, which was the final-day victory over Burnley. He did make seven appearances in the Europa League, but the five starts all came in the group stages and his other two appearances were as a late-game substitute to wrap up wins over Napoli in the quarter-finals. He also missed very little time due to injury and yet was in and out of the matchday squad throughout the year.

It was Emery who decided to loan Elneny out, so perhaps Arteta thinks differently. But the 27-year-old’s limitations were quite clear for all to see. Even if he does return, he would be little more than the last midfielder in the squad, stored in a ‘Break in case of emergency’ box.

Elneny currently earns £50,000 per week and has two years remaining on his deal. Besiktas have an €18 million buy-out clause, which is worth just north of £15 million. It remains to be seen whether they exercise it, but even if they do not, expect Arsenal to look for something similar from another buyer this summer.