Basel: Elneny transfer to Arsenal in "coming days"

FC Basel returned to training today after their winter break, with Arsenal target Mohamed Elneny not among the players in training.

The club website had this to say:

Ebenfalls abwesend war Mohamed Elneny, bei dem es in den kommenden Tagen zu einem Transfer kommen könnte

Which translates to, "Also absent was Mohamed Elneny, in which there could be a transfer in the coming days". Now, unless Arsenal are to be completely gazumped, this matches everything else that has been coming out in the media over the past few days, including Arsène Wenger saying on Saturday that he "hoped to have a transfer done in the next 10 days".

The transfer for Elneny is dependent on a work permit, so presumably that is what's holding the transfer up, as Elneny doesn't qualify for one automatically, with Egypt having dropped out of the top 50 FIFA rankings. However, because Basel have been in European competition, and the Swiss league is a decent enough league, Elneny should have enough 'points' to qualify for a work permit as judged by an independent panel.