Mahrez 'lost two years at Leicester'

[Bazly]

Lets remind ourselves of how cash strapped the Arse are, this was recently evident in their reported £38mn bid for Maguire. Back in the day, that day being in 2016/17 when Mahrez was blocked from heading to Arsenal here were the reports of that time:

 

June 3, 2017: Wenger confirms Arsenal interest. Arsenal manager admits a move for Riyad Mahrez 'could happen' but says he has 'not yet' bid 

 

 

Arsenal have had a bid in excess of £30 million turned down for Monaco winger Thomas Lemar and are now considering whether to formalise their interest in Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez. ... 28 June 2017

 

11 Aug 2016 - Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri says there have been no bids for Riyad Mahrez. The winger is currently being heavily linked with a move to Arsenal

 

24 Jun 2017 - Riyad Mahrez has told Leicester City of his intentions to join Arsenal

 

11 Jun 2017 LEICESTER winger Riyad Mahrez is waiting on an offer from Barcelona

 

June 3, 2017. Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger says signing Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez is possible, but no bid has been made 

 

Deluded would seem an apt description. From EPL player of the year to bench warmer is 3 years at his age which should be the best years of his career clearly has him in a poor mental state. Probably its time to spend some Mahrez time sat in a M1 service station or parked up at Manchester airport.

[srex9]

The media twist words all the time. I doubt that is a direct quote from Riyad as he has shown plenty of respect for the club and the owners since he left. Newspapers need to sell stories and get a reaction and based on this forum the journo has done just that. I'd take it with a pinch of salt.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

18 hours ago, foxfanazer said:

Don't care. No room for bad apples at this club

This, like when we won the league it really feels like this entire squad are close mates on and off the pitch. Mahrez was great for us but he was always looking out for himself, and him chucking his toys out the pram definitely had some significance with respect to our poor performances for 2016-2018

[Mike Oxlong]

So he didn’t go there then ?

 

[Danny Clender]

Boo-Hoo, I've lost loads more than 2 years by supporting Leicester over my time. 

 

As posted earlier in the thread, I think he's deflecting from the reality of this thought.

 

"Mahrez remains a magical player on his day but the suspicion remains that he is a player who reflects his team’s performance rather than dictates it"

Quote from The Guardian yesterday. 

 

His memories certainly waned post 2016. 

[Simoken]

1 hour ago, Bayfox said:

Also why I guess you can argue the toss over getting paid well, if you are that desperate to get out of a club, don't sign that new deal giving more power to your employer.

'ba dum tiss' end of thread quote this. close it and lets concentrate on the team  and not the past. k thanks

Edited 12 November 2019 by Simoken

[Vestan Pance]

8 minutes ago, srex9 said:

The media twist words all the time. I doubt that is a direct quote from Riyad as he has shown plenty of respect for the club and the owners since he left. Newspapers need to sell stories and get a reaction and based on this forum the journo has done just that. I'd take it with a pinch of salt.

It'll be interesting to see if he challenges the quotes in the next few days. The article is damaging to his legacy and his reputation. I'm sure he'll want that put right if he's misrepresented.

[volpeazzurro]

15 hours ago, brucey said:

Here’s a separate translation from GFFN, if anyone cares.

 

Riyad Mahrez: “I nearly joined Arsenal in the summer of 2016.”

Speaking in an interview with France Football, Algerian international and Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez discussed how he nearly joined Arsenal, being in contention for the Ballon D’Or, Leicester City blocking his exit and a lack of playing time under Pep Guardiola last season.
 

On the Ballon D’Or:

It is nice (to be nominated), it proves that I am in the process of coming back, little by little. Over the last two years, they (Sadio Mané & Mo Salah) have stolen a march on me, because I was still at Leicester. We did not have the team to play for the top positions like they did. Last season, when I didn’t play a lot, I was convinced that I was going to have a strong AFCON. I know myself, when I play matches consistently, I can score a lot of goals, provide assists and have everything at its best. In Egypt, I got my revenge. Before the competition, I would not stop repeating this to my friends.

 

Did this lack of matches make you feel fragile?

At the end of the season, I spent several matches on the bench. Mentally, it was very difficult to live with. But in training I put everything into it because I still had this aim with Algeria. I said to myself: ‘Go for it, at one moment Pep (Guardiola) will need you.’

 

After winning the Premier League Player of the Year in 2016, a lot of people said that you were a one-season wonder:

That made me laugh. My career had just begun. I had only had one year in the Premier League and then I have a crazy year. How could you say that I had the season of my life when I was just making my beginnings at the highest level. Aside from that, people judge harshly. I had a good Champions’ League campaign, going until the quarter-finals. I was not brilliant, but we should not lie either, we didn’t have the team to set the world alight.

 

Where did the frustration come from about being in this team?

After the year of the title, had I left for a top team, it would not have been the same story. For me, it is clear that I have lost two years at the highest level. I lost two years! Because instead of arriving at City at the age of 27, I would have maybe been 24 or 25.

 

Why didn’t you leave?

Leicester blocked me. They said to me: ‘You shall not leave! You shall not leave!’ My agent had spoken with Wenger who really wanted me, it was nearly done with Arsenal in the summer of 2016.

 

What were your experiences of the two years at Leicester after winning the title?

I was truly frustrated. It is not easy to go from being the best player in the Premier League to being a part of a team that is fighting to stave off relegation. It is not the same job. Everyone is waiting to criticise you, everyone jumps on your back. It was not at all the same team. N’Golo Kanté left for Chelsea. We were involved in the Champions’ League, playing every three days, we were not prepared for that.

How odd and arrogant that he aligns himself with Salah and Mane. He's not fit to lace their boots. The determination and workrate of those two players alone dwarf the efforts of Marhez and are a contributory factor to their success. Marhez had some raw talent at Leicester but it was there for all to see that for the most part, his industry and work ethic was low, Ranieri dropped him on at least two occasions for this, something that even the player himself alluded to in his Player of the Year acceptance speech. It was precisely players like Kante and Simpson, who did his donkey work, that allowed Marhez to get away with his idleness and low work rate. Arguably, when players like Kante and Drinkwater left, it allowed focus on Marhez's lack of team contribution and, despite his very odd moment of brilliance, he should have been dropped. For his behaviour and selfishness, I didn't shed a tear when he left but commented on here at the time that, if he felt he was going to get into a Guadiola side without busting a gut he would get a rude awakening and spend the majority of time on the bench and so it has proved to be correct and come to fruition.

 

Guadiola, like Rodgers to some extent, has a reputation for improving players, Sterling being a prime example. So why not Marhez? Either the talent wasn't there in the first place, but even I as his detractor have to admit he had talent, or, the player himself wasn't prepared to put in the hard yards, thinking that he knew best and can just coast along in the same old entitled way. 

 

So now it appears that it's not his fault he's not hit the heights he seemingly feels are his entitlement and instead blames his previous club. What a sad little man and a wasted opportunity. He will fade into obscurity for Man City fans and most of the football world. A one trick pony and one season wonder, he's reaping his just rewards at Man City, a few medals that he had very little impact for the team that really won them, a shallow fraud of a man.

Edited 12 November 2019 by volpeazzurro

[HighPeakFox]

I'm wondering what other rubbish we'll have directed at us in the press between now and the 23rd. 

 

Just remember, these are the same papers that like to direct your political thinking. 

[Workingtonfox]

Should he not be denouncing the article if it is not true? No time for the man.

[Countryfox]

Why didn’t he stay at Le Havre and wait for Man City to come and get him ...   would have wasted even less years then ...  

 

Miserable little tw@t.   It’s all me me me and total disrespect to our club and it’s owners ...  there was no need for this.

[Guest Markyblue]

8 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

I'm wondering what other rubbish we'll have directed at us in the press between now and the 23rd. 

 

Just remember, these are the same papers that like to direct your political thinking. 

I'd be very wary of blaming everything on the press, vast amounts of people never pick a paper up to read nowadays,  social media sites are far worse for fake news of whatever political stance left or right. If he didn't say these things then he should say so.

[HighPeakFox]

1 minute ago, Markyblue said:

I'd be very wary of blaming everything on the press, vast amounts of people never pick a paper up to read nowadays,  social media sites are far worse for fake news of whatever political stance left or right. If he didn't say these things then he should say so.

My point was more that the press is there to divert attention. I'm not sure what I said qualifies as 'blaming everything on the press'. 

[Guest Markyblue]

2 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

My point was more that the press is there to divert attention. I'm not sure what I said qualifies as 'blaming everything on the press'. 

Ok fair enough. 

[Dahnsouff]

He no longer plays for Leicester. His reported statements concerning this club (The club that gave him his big chance) is irrelevant.

It may be that the statements are there to provide him some visibility (Maybe he slipped behind the bench), but whatever.

 

Goodbye not-so-sweet-prince (Alledgedly)

 

[Danny Clender]

1 hour ago, Mike Oxlong said:

So he didn’t go there then ?

 

No he didn't.

He had a load of these done, in various kits, in the passport-photo booth up at East Mids.

Security had to lob him out at one point, that's why there's not an Atletico Madrid version available. 

[mazarron fox]

1 hour ago, Danny Clender said:

Boo-Hoo, I've lost loads more than 2 years by supporting Leicester over my time. 

 

As posted earlier in the thread, I think he's deflecting from the reality of this thought.

 

"Mahrez remains a magical player on his day but the suspicion remains that he is a player who reflects his team’s performance rather than dictates it"

Quote from The Guardian yesterday. 

 

His memories certainly waned post 2016. 

That sir is it in a nutshell otherwise known as ( gone missing ) 

[ClaphamFox]

22 minutes ago, HighPeakFox said:

My point was more that the press is there to divert attention. I'm not sure what I said qualifies as 'blaming everything on the press'. 

Divert attention from what? 

[urban.spaceman]

I wonder how this guy is feeling right now?!

 

[Guest Markyblue]

4 minutes ago, urban.spaceman said:

I wonder how this guy is feeling right now?!

 

He means this January,  then off to Southampton in the summer.

[Nuge]

What a melt. 

[Wolfox]

1 hour ago, Vestan Pance said:

It'll be interesting to see if he challenges the quotes in the next few days. The article is damaging to his legacy and his reputation. I'm sure he'll want that put right if he's misrepresented.

That’s making the assumption that he even cares about his legacy at our club…

[foxy boxing]

why is he looking back and moaning, he got the move he wanted! or did he. at Man City he has limited game time where at Arsenal he probably feels he would be playing more regularly. he wanted a move and Leicester did not want to sell. end of. if he'd of played to his potential and not sulked and refused to play then he wouldn't feel like he lost two years of his playing career!. we gave him the platform to perform on the big stage and recognised his potential he should just be grateful for that.

[BirminghamFox]

[Fightforever]

Oh no we held him captive by paying him 100k a week my arse

**** you too then.

He could have the talent of maradona and messi combined doesn't give him an excuse to be an entitled ****.

 

Edited 12 November 2019 by Fightforever