When Mohammed Elneny returned from his loan spell at Besiktas this summer, he was not sure what to expect.
The Egypt international flourished in Turkey but wondered whether he still had a future with us under Mikel Arteta – but received a pleasant surprise.
“Before I came to London, I didn’t speak to him, and I was a bit…. Not stressed, but just thinking about what would he like,” Elneny said.
“When I sat with him, I said, ‘The way you train, the way you want to play is the way I love to play’ and really I love the way we train, the way he is assisting everything in the club now and it makes me excited to give 100 percent for the team.
“Under Emery, I was not playing much, that is why you can lose your confidence and your feeling to play. That is why when I went to Besiktas, on a one-year loan, I played always and brought the confidence back, and when I came back here I saw everyone happy for me to come back.
“Everyone was excited to see me back, and when I trained, everyone gave me good feedback, saying ’Mo, you did well’ and this makes you get your confidence back. I will build it and build it and every day I try to learn new things.
“Yes [I feel wanted], all the time, every day,” he added. “I think in any job if you wake up in the morning, try to learn new things and try to improve every day… this is what is always in my mind when I wake up. I have to go training, I need to improve myself in everything.”
