Tuesday 14 July 2009

Ade-bye-or: mixed emotions?

As the Usmanov propaganda appears to be swallowed whole by the BBC (how can anyone take a report commissioned by the walrus like fatty seriously is beyond me), Emmanuel Adebayor is on the verge of signing for Manchester City, I hear that he is currently being fondled by the Manchester City doctor. I'm just praying that don't decide to scan his head as they may just find the rather vacuous space that I am sure will be his downfall over and over again.

Anyway I've been mulling over Emmanuel Adebayor's Arsenal career and overall I've concluded that his big ego has resulted in massive underachievement. He was never the most gifted of players, his touch frequently let him down, but in his early days it was his fantastic work rate that made him a first choice selection. His first season and a bit saw a lot of effort but not the most clinical of finishing, he only managed around a goal every three games. 2007/8 saw him hit a purple patch as he banged in 24 league goals in 36 games, an impressive tally by anyone's standards, some of these goals were quite magnificent, the goals away to Newcastle and away to Tottenham particularly stand out in the memory.

Then it all went wrong. Emmanuel doesn't appear the brightest and it seems that all the praise went straight to the vacuum in his skull, maybe he had received some bad advice and maybe the hangers on whispered sweet words of encouragement in his ears. The summer of 2008 saw him pimp himself around Europe in a quite disgraceful manner, he seemed to think that one big season made him one of the best around, he forgot that he was not the most gifted of players and that one of the key ingredients to his success had been his work rate. Last season saw him splutter, the effort was sporadic at best, the dismal performance away to Manu in the CL semi sticks in the mind as being characteristic of a player who no longer fought, who no longer cared. We Arsenal fans no longer sung his name with gusto, this summer came with most of us hoping that someone would come in for him and take him far far away from the Emirates.

So what will happen to Emmanuel Adebayor at City? Well, there will be no shortage of egos in that dressing room and no shortage of strikers in the squad. Santa Cruz, Bellamy, Tevez and Adebayor have all been shipped in recently. The competition for places looks more likely to result in toys being thrown out of prams than helping create hungry strikers. In reality Emmanuel Adebayor is a decent striker, he's big, he's strong, he's good in the air, his touch is erratic, his finishing is average, his goalscoring record is good to middling- he averages almost a league goal every other game but remember that many of these were penalties.

If he had it going on upstairs then you could get past his footballing flaws, the problem is that what happens upstairs is very important, if you are to win the top prizes you need a team full of hard working motivated individuals, unfortunately for Emmanuel and City he is not one of these. One's gut reaction to losing a player is often a guide to how good that player actually is, in that context I am delighted that Adebayor is leaving and even more delighted that we are getting a decent wad in exchange for his Togoan greed. I won't deny that there is a sense of a big missed opportunity regarding Adebayor's Arsenal stay, if he wasn't such a twat he could have been a true legend for us, sadly he was and that's that. Hopefully this money can be reinvested more wisely than it has been spent by City.

7 comments:

Obsinho said...

Partially agree with you on this one - he has/had great potential but something holds him back. If he goes ( and it still is an if & I don't really understand who city will play up front) then I won't feel any real sense of loss to the club.

But the reported money on offer is madness. you sign tevez who has won a lot and was south American player of the year three times - I understand that signing. You spend close to £40m in total fees & wages for someone who has actually won nothing and looked poor for a year - just donor get it.

Now I don't care if fergie has hidden his credit card are skint, but the fact he thinks there is no value in the Market is very interesting. Utd normally set the pace in the transfer Market & it seems odd to see them so shackled.

Where are the articles on their finacial security? Why aren't the papers full of their fans moaning?

Rambling a bit here, but city and real have de- stabilised a lot of clubs who by all accounts are very stable.

The Ed said...

I think Adebayor leaving is a good thing.
He has quality, for sure, but I don't feel he
has lived up to the expectation of an Arsenal
striker.
A classy def midfielder and a decent striker to
support RvP and the others will make Arsenal
auchincloss stronger team this coming season.

Rhinogooner said...

Read somewhere today that negotiations have broken down between Milan and Sevilla over Fabiano. Bidding war for Adebayor set to begin?

Now that it appears that Melo is out of our grasp. Who, if anyone, do you reckon we will pursue in our efforts to bring in a midfield partner for Fabregas?

I've not seen this Cana bloke play very much, but Moyes seems to have a knack for bringing in talented players so I rate his judgment. Because of this, I find myself a bit nervous that Everton are heavily pursuing him and there appears to be very little substantial interest from us.

Last item on my mind - how many center backs do we need? Something has got to give right? Hopefully Silvestre and Senderos will be shipped out. And we still have Nordveit looking to break through soon too I'd imagine.

KG said...

let's not mourn that Ade will leave/has left --- he was certainly no Henry (he thinks otherwise lol); no one is bigger than the club;
Ade was a nobody when he came here .. same will be for his replacement (if there is any --- remember Eduardo for Henry?) ; so guys be ready for actual football which around the corner;

//KG.

Ted said...

good summary 1979. The deal seems to be almost done with Man City. Its a shame that Ade won't achieve his full potential with Arsenal, but £25m for him is simply too good to refuse. I expect he will disappear into Arsenal's history fast enough.

1979gooner said...

good point about city and real screwing other clubs, although this is partly the fault of the other clubs for trying to compete

the transfer fees and wages have been inflated to ridiculous levels and this is nailing a lot of clubs,

only time will tell how many clubs will be driven into administration in this way

Obsinho said...

It' not necessarily in a finacial way that city are screwing clubs, look at their behaviour with terry and Chelsea. It is very similar to the real way of doing business and is hugely disagreeable. I'd like to see the some of the media showing a little more dislike for this kind of thing, but they just love it when their are transfers.

Why don't we just cancel the season and have a non-stop transfer window instead. Would keep most fans happy too.