Good old Paul Merson. He’s very much the sort of person that you would have loved to have a pint or ten with during his drinking days.
Because he never holds back with his thoughts on players and the game in general. And he has a wonderful way of putting things.
In his latest public utterances, the Arsenal ledge has stated that he isn’t overwhelmed by Arsene Wenger’s likely next signing Mohamed Elneny. He told Sky Sports:
“I thought they would go for a real key signing,” Merson said. “Someone for £30m-odd. I think it’s about £5m, I don’t think he’ll go straight in the team, he’ll be a squad player for the games coming up.
“It depends how quickly he settles.”
Egyptian international Elneny does look like a decent player. Anyone who has already appeared for Egypt 39 times by the age of 23 has to be pretty good.
But this transfer does have the feel of Arsenal during their years of austerity when they took a lot of cheapish punts on players who simply didn’t make the grade.
We feel that the Arsenal boss, or any manager for that matter, should never buy a player unless he is good enough for the first team or has the potential to be better than what the club already has.
The jury obviously remains out on Elneny for now. But he will try to let his football do the talking if he does sign for Arsenal, as expected, in this winter window.
Victor Kay
Jan 13, 2016 at 12:45 am
Nonsense! Was Vardy bought for 30 mill? Giroud only cost us 12 mill while strikers now cost 25 mill up. Elneny may just be what we need. Merson should exercise some patience and wait for Elneny to play for arsenal first before the condemnation.