Our View: ‘Special’ player will quit Arsenal within weeks if rumour is true

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Arsenal, at the moment, look poised to complete their first January signing of the winter window.

The Gunners are fifth in the Premier League and haven’t participated in the Champions League proper since 2016.

However, if Arsenal recruit intelligently in January then Mikel Arteta’s outfit have every chance of sealing a return in Europe’s elite competition.

Arthur Melo looks relatively close to joining the North Londoners and according to Goal Italy, Edu and Arteta have accelerated negotiations with Juventus over signing the midfielder on an initial loan agreement.

And if that is true, Mohamed Elneny will almost certainly try and secure a departure away from Arsenal before the window shuts.

Departure looming

Elneny is on international duty with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations.

But the former Basel midfielder will certainly be aware of the fact that Arsenal are seemingly set to bring in the Brazilian.

And if it happens then there’s just zero point in Elneny staying at the Gunners beyond January.

We’re talking about a player who has managed only 170 minutes of Premier League football since August.

Even without Arthur, Elneny’s career at Arsenal is on life support. With Arthur, his spell at the Emirates Stadium is completely dead.

Elneny isn’t a bad football, and his manager even labelled him ‘special‘ in November of 2020 following a victory away to Manchester United.

However, Granit Xhaka, Thomas Partey, Albert Sambi Lokonga and now potentially Arthur will be ahead of him in the pecking order and, as mentioned, trying to play regularly at Arsenal, with that sort of competition, is impossible.

If and when Arthur is confirmed, it’ll be the final nail in Elneny’s Arsenal career.