Amr Zaki is proving to be the “thinking out of the box” player that Wenger prefers. With a nice affordable price tag.
He is on loan to Wigan and it is because of his performance that pundits suspect that Wigan are better than they look. Steve Bruce is all praise for the EPL’s top scorer. Bruce took it on himself to follow Zaki’s career traveling to the this year’s ACN and then onto Cairo. Some good old fashioned scouting seems to be paying off.
I saw the Wigan vs Man City match and Zaki was nigh impossible to bring down, seemingly having inexhaustible supplies of energy with some nice foot skills to match, and an appetite for goals. His club Zamalek is open to a permanent move to Wigan for an additional fee of £4 million. I suspect if he continues performing like this that it will lead to a feeding frenzy in the transfer market next summer.
In physicality he resembles Drogba minus the diving. In spirit, he is being compared to Alan Shearer. And he might be the one who turns around the poorly attended Wigan games. At the JJB, the 10000 or so fans were having the time of their lives chanting “Zaki! Zaki! Zaki!” as he mowed through the City defense leaving Richard Dunne gesticulating in frustration.
Zaki seems to have understood that Wigan’s season will not be easy. He has a point to prove.
“I’ve already scored a few goals and it has gone well for me, but I was disappointed we lost the first two games because I felt we deserved to win them both. We just have to keep going.”
“When I’m on the pitch the only thing I think about is winning”