Mohamed Elneny Thread (official)

[Power n Glory]

Two players out of hundreds, so a case well argued

Not sure he tried very hard to be honest, 3 months and all he can find is a keeper, he should be ashamed of himself, it's not like we don't have money or are a small club.

I remember the conversation about how Silvestre was a quality player and about how Chamakh was great and was a key player for Bordeaux.

Yep, I remember the Chamakh praise. When I finally saw him play for us, I wasn't convinced. Totally the wrong style for us, lethargic in front of goal but people only noticed that once he stopped scoring and kept praising him.

I think with No, we'll see what he is like if he gets a work permit. He might turn out decent.

[Kano]

To be honest though, people will always say great things about new signings, it almost like the feel they have to...

No, we do it because we're football fans and without any sense of optimism, there is no point following the sport.

You are pessimistic about the club, manager, players and the fans - do you even like football anymore?

[Letters]

Two players out of hundreds, so a case well argued

Again. Note the difference in the big signings after the new financial deals and before. There was a change in our finances, it immediately led to a change in our spending. The change in the sort of player we started signing after the new financial deals shows it wasn't just about penny pinching for the sake of it, one could argue that Wenger was too frugal and cautious but he's always looked out for our long term future, Arsenal will be here long after he's gone and he's got us in great shape financially and in a place where we can now seriously compete, as we are doing so far.

And I agree Wenger failed to land a big signing last summer - well, again Cech was a fantastic signing but we could have done with more. But it sounded like he was after Benzema so he was trying to make another big signing. Maybe people did rate Silvestre and Chamakh - you can't blame Arsenal fans for being optimistic about new signings (well, most Arsenal fans...). Literally no-one was 'creaming' themselves though.

I've no idea about this bloke but he sounds like a pretty decent player in a position where we could do with more cover.

[Power n Glory]

No, we do it because we're football fans and without any sense of optimism, there is no point following the sport.

You are pessimistic about the club, manager, players and the fans - do you even like football anymore?

I think you'll find most people are struggling to really enjoy football. Why follow? Optimism comes from hope of something changing at the club.

[Letters]

I think you'll find most people are struggling to really enjoy football. Why follow? Optimism comes from hope of something changing at the club.

Without wishing to go round and round the same circles again, you don't think Ozil, Sanchez and Cech have made a difference?
I guess we'll see come May how much they have but players like that give me more hope of finishing the job this time than I had on other occasions.

[Özim]

No, we do it because we're football fans and without any sense of optimism, there is no point following the sport.

You are pessimistic about the club, manager, players and the fans - do you even like football anymore?

Optimism gets eroded away when you see the same things happening time and time again, I've got noting against signing players like this, but the frequency at which we do I do have a problem with, we should be signing, some youngsters, some cheaper players and some top quality players on a regular basis, not 2 top players, 100's of kids and loads of unknowns in 10+ years.

Do I enjoy it, not that much anymore, consequently I watch less, the management of the club certainly makes it less interesting for me.

[Letters]

Again, the 10+ years thing is a red herring in this argument.
When our financial position changed, so did the signings. The difference is obvious.

[Özim]

Again. Note the difference in the big signings after the new financial deals and before. There was a change in our finances, it immediately led to a change in our spending. The change in the sort of player we started signing after the new financial deals shows it wasn't just about penny pinching for the sake of it, one could argue that Wenger was too frugal and cautious but he's always looked out for our long term future, Arsenal will be here long after he's gone and he's got us in great shape financially and in a place where we can now seriously compete, as we are doing so far.

And I agree Wenger failed to land a big signing last summer - well, again Cech was a fantastic signing but we could have done with more. But it sounded like he was after Benzema so he was trying to make another big signing. Maybe people did rate Silvestre and Chamakh - you can't blame Arsenal fans for being optimistic about new signings (well, most Arsenal fans...). Literally no-one was 'creaming' themselves though.

I've no idea about this bloke but he sounds like a pretty decent player in a position where we could do with more cover.

Ozil as great as he is was a bit of a last minute panic buy when Wenger was under a lot of pressure (though I was thrilled about it as I rated him very highly), Sanchez was the only one that I see us as having planned for. Problem with these deals is that they stand alone, we've bought two guys and they've made a massive difference but now we've gone back to doing next to nothing and being cheap just like we were before.

Benzema was a pipe dream to everyone but Wenger, there was absolutely zero chance of him coming that was very clear, so if we wasted our time (big if) going after him then we seriously need our heads examined. We should have identified several targets we had enough time, we needed a DM and we didn't get one, so now we've done what we always do and taken the cheap option it's laughable.

Noone knows how good this guy is, could be a top player, could be a dud, statistically I'd say he's more likely to be closer to the former based on the fact noone knows him (so he clearly hasn't stood out), he's cheap and he plays in Switzerland, that's not to say he won't be good, but the odds are certainly more stacked against him being a success than someone established who cost a bit more.

To those saying there's noone we could replace Coquelin with who could be better, have a word with yourselves, if you're willing to pay up there's always a way to sign top quality, Coquelin is still relatively unproven, a good half season doesn't prove he's the answer to all our problems.

[Özim]

Again, the 10+ years thing is a red herring in this argument.
When our financial position changed, so did the signings. The difference is obvious.

I disagree, we were told before we built the stadium that we wanted a world class team in a world class stadium and that there was no point of one and not the other, we also bought and sold plenty in that time and wasted a lot of money on kids and unknowns, money we could have spent on top quality but we chose not to.

In those 10 years, if we'd spent money more wisely and not wasted it on the crocks and unknowns we'd have seen much better players playing for us, it all adds up.

[Özim]

Without wishing to go round and round the same circles again, you don't think Ozil, Sanchez and Cech have made a difference?
I guess we'll see come May how much they have but players like that give me more hope of finishing the job this time than I had on other occasions.

Yes they do give you more chance of finishing the job, 3 players doesn't make Champions, far from it, we needed more than that. In the end I expect us to fail to win the title, because we've seen it many times before, we know how injuries always affect us and how we tend to struggle when genuine pressure to win something big kicks in, 2-3 players is a step in the right direction but we need more than that, a top striker being one.