Fenerbahce sporting director Damien Comolli held talks with Arsenal over Laurent Koscielny and Mohamed Elneny whilst in Baku for the Europa League final, according to reports.
Turkish outlet fotoMac report that Comolli was present for the Europa League final last week, looking to add a couple of Arsenal players to his squad. He reportedly spoke with Koscielny and Elneny over a summer move and enquired with the Gunners over how much the pair would cost.
Though Elneny appears to be enjoying his time with Arsenal, it probably wouldn’t be too difficult to convince him to leave this summer. The Egyptian midfielder has only played 17 games all season, making 12 starts, and it doesn’t seem like he’s working his way into Unai Emery’s plans for the next campaign.
The 26-year-old still has a contract with Arsenal until 2022 though, so he’s not going to leave unless a club is willing to pay to release him from that deal.
Meanwhile, Koscielny’s contract expires in 2020, so this is the last real chance for Arsenal to get any money back for him. At the same time, the 33-year-old has had a strong season in North London, making 31 appearances and captaining his side all the way through the Europa League knockout stages to the final.
You’d imagine Arsenal would only sell Koscielny if that thought they could bring in a player of a similar standard this summer. Otherwise, the centre-back giving them one more season is probably worth more than the transfer fee he’d bring in.
