The rumour is that they are here, but until they are spotted doing some late night shopping in St Stephens Tesco then I'll not believe it.
Not only are the Egyptians here but they've been given a mercedes to drive around in courtesy of the club! They just passed me beeping the horn! Ah I thought that must be the tooting car men!
Whenever they arrive, a very warm welcome to the tigers chaps! Here's hoping we can make it three with Elmo...
Hello all, I’m from Egypt (yeah, it’s safe to say you guys will get that a couple more times this season ). I’ve always found it fun, when one of our players moves to Europe, to have a look around fan boards and see how the other side sees the whole thing Cultural/language differences and confusion often provide a few good laughs too… I'm also of course interested in keeping track of how our players do abroad, being an almost obsessive follower of our NT for some time now. Anyway… I’ll be dropping in here for a while and will be happy to take any questions related to Egyptian football and players. To the success of this deal for all (ie. Hull's promotion to the EPL) !
Welcome and a few questions: 1) What's the NT? 2) Are the two blokes joining us match fit such that that they will be able to fit into the Championship half way through the season? if not, how long are they going to need to get up to speed? 3) Where does the Andrew come from? Thanks
It's not entirely correct that he has priority over Elmo in the national team. Under previous coach Hassan Shehata, Fathy used to start as a DMF and Elmo would play at RWB in a 3-5-2 formation, so the coach was making use of both regularly. Now, with Bob Bradley coaching, we're playing 4 at the back, and we have very good other options in the DMF position so both Fathy and Elmo compete for RB. We've only had four official matches under Bradley (World Cup and AFCON qualifiers back in June last year). It's difficult to say who was the starter of preference in the slew of friendlies we played otherwise (Elmo may have had a slight edge), but in those 4 games, Elmo started two, one of which he played 45min, and Fathy started two and played half as Elmo's sub. Thing is, they're very different players. Fathy is a better dribbler, has more fancy tricks and goes for the riskier but potentially more useful passes... He's also more aggressive (more hot-blooded too), more physical, has a higher work rate, great stamina, and he's an exemplary fighter who'll give his all at all times. Also very strong defensively but will often get booked. Elmo is a much better crosser on the other hand. Fathy can make good crosses, but he's far from consistent there. He can cross the ball to the clouds as well as send an outstanding ball in. You just never know. Anyway, I suppose you all know Elmo by now, but to continue, I just see him as being a safer, more accurate and pragmatic player overall. His pace is great when there's space for a sudden run, but if you want a faster rythm to your game in terms of decision-making, one-touch play, one-two's, dribbling out of tight spots, etc, Fathy is the man for it. Depends on what you're looking for, really. I personally prefer Fathy.
1) NT is just the national team I know the US national team is always referred to as the USMNT (M for "Men's") so I assumed, wrongly it seems, that NT was common use. 2) Yeah I would say they are match fit. They haven't exactly been playing week and week out for the past year so I suppose there must be something missing, but the Ahly players have kind of impressed everyone with their fitness throughout their African Champions League campaign, which they won, and then at the Clubs World Cup, against a strong Brazilian side, they kept running and attacking throughout the 90 minutes. Like I said, there has to be something missing when you're not playing that often but it hasn't stood out. Between training, club friendlies, national team friendlies and ACL matches I think they did just fine. 3) It's my name . I have some various roots from Lebanon, Syria and ex-Yugoslavia (I think Slovenia now, specifically) besides Egypt, so I wasn't necessarily going to land a traditional Egyptian name What's funny though is that starting with my generation, many (purely Egyptian) Copts and Orthodoxes got named Andrew. There's Saint Andrew that Copts here know as "Andrawoss", but that sounds kind of heavy and was never a common modern name. Maybe they had just found out around the time I was born that there's a shorter version in English and it caught on. My parents had no idea, they just liked the name
Lots of Twitter reports suggesting everything's done with the Egyptians, just need to be announced officially now. Campbell deal also expected to be close to completion: David Burns @bbcburnsy Ebanks-Blake not on agenda now. Told was not full blown bid but enquiry and price too rich. #hcafc David Burns @bbcburnsy Confusing this Transfer Window but Campbell very close, Phillips no, Egyptians yes but depends on work permits and could be more! #hcafc Interesting tweet about Elmo too, Scott_HU12 @M0NKEYtrousers @JHunterChron local #HCAFC writer 4 hull daily mail @PJBuckingham saying @Elmo_27 is 50/50 of him staying at Sunderland or going to hull.
Is that like saying its 50/50 of Messi signing? Either he will or he wont. Elmo and Fathi? Are we going to start playing with Wingers? I cant see Fathi coming to sit on the bench.
In a 3-5-2, and if we get Elmo back, I think that SB will play Fathi as a defensive midfielder, which would ensure that Evans & Meyler have to play well to keep their shirt
Thanks The credit goes to my love of movies, to countless hours spent on the computer, and to Harry Potter back when I couln't wait for the translations to come out and just started reading the damn things in English and asking my mother about the meaning of fifty words a sentence! I live in Alexandria... Been here before?
So if the deal & paperwork is all completed, why is Sky or the Official site not showing it? Are they waiting for a big news conference later on when they get back from Portugal, or just waiting for the Campbell deal to go through? I would have thought they'd announce it by now, then leave the press conference until tomorrow. Or is the fine print, crossing the "T's" & dotting the "I's"?
Someone on Twatter said the media were gathering around the KC, but nothing else seems to have been mentioned.
