West Ham United and Leicester City allegedly missed out on Mohamed Elneny.
Agent Alaa Nazmy has told Goal that West Ham United and Leicester City both wanted to sign client Mohamed Elneny this past summer.
Elneny spent more than three-and-a-half years as an Arsenal first-teamer having joined from Basel in January 2016, but he never really established himself as a starter.
The Egyptian international made just 46 Premier League appearances for Arsenal during his time with the club, and 89 in all competitions before deciding to go this summer.
Elneny ended up heading out to Turkey, joining Besiktas on a season-long loan deal as he seemingly felt it was time to play regular first-team football again.
So far, the 27-year-old has only made three appearances for Besiktas, and his agent has now opened up on the other offers that were on the table for him over the summer.
Nazmy claims that two Premier League clubs – Leicester and West Ham – both made offers to sign Elneny, and so did Valencia, but Besiktas were the only ones to agree terms with Arsenal.
“Elneny received a lot of offers last summer, led by Leicester City, West Ham United and Valencia, but Besiktas managed to settle the deal with Arsenal,” he added.
A hard-working and combative midfielder, Elneny may not have set pulses racing at Leicester or West Ham, but he’d have done a lot of the dirty work for the likes of James Maddison, Felipe Anderson and Manuel Lanzini to go and play.
Maybe they will be keeping tabs on Elneny during his time in Turkey with a view to trying again, as Arsenal will no doubt hope to cash in and sell the midfielder at the end of the season, with three years left on his £50,000-a-week deal (Spotrac).
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