He had a goal that game when they beat City 2-1. Granted it was the second leg where City won the first game in a landslide so they weren't exactly going all out. But yeah, he was probably the standout player on the pitch.
Other teams remember that game among others, and they've also seen his brother play, which is why they are interested in him on a loan. The way they see it, Elyououssi is a potentially good player who ended up stuck in a bad situation playing for an awful side with an awful manager, and then got caught in a managerial shuffle. That's probably a much more objective way of looking at it.
If he was legitimately as ****ty as people here think, no one would want him even on loan. He's the scapegoat for us sucking under Hughes, even though he was no ****tier under Hughes than anyone else. He wasn't good, but he also wasn't bad. He didn't play enough to make a difference one way or the other.
He's probably an okay-but-not-great player, just like Carrillo is an okay player who everyone thinks sucks even though they haven't seen nearly enough of him to make a judgment. Leganes had a good season last year with Pellegrino as the manager and Carrillo as their striker. So like, that combination can work. It just didn't work for us.