Arsene Wenger has confirmed that a deal for Mohamed Elneny is close to completion having taken a little longer than expected.

Negotiations with the Egyptian’s club, FC Basle, have been successful with the hold up down to work permit complications. There’s no suggestion the move could collapse with Wenger happy to speak openly about the midfielder in his pre-Sunderland press conference.

“The deal is complicated a little bit,” said Wenger. “We work hard on it, we hope in the next two to three days we get to the end of it.

He added: “The only [signing]? I don’t rule out anybody else. He [Elneny] will at least be one of the signings and comes into an area where we are short at the moment.”

The boss also tackled a series of questions on other transfer business, admitting Mathieu Debuchy could still leave the club this month.

“He has an opportunity to go, yes, but we’ve not been in touch with any club,” noted Wenger.

Spurious rumours linking Watford’s Troy Deeney with a move to the Emirates and a Chelsea approach for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were dismissed as rubbish by a chuckling Wenger.