Recently, there has been talk of Milan chasing Adebayor to solve their problems in the strike department. They are supposed to have a shortlist of three players Drogba, Etoo and Adebayor. As per the latest update the price they have been told for Etoo by Barca is deemed to be too high, and they are waiting for a price quote for the other two players from their respective clubs. As usual, the agent for Adebayor seems to be salivating at this interest and trying to make the most of it. Rumors of Adebayor already agreeing personal terms with Milan have been spread, with the small matter of Milan agreeing a fee with Arsenal. In short, a whole lot of the usual hoopla. There are two positive points that have come out of this whole hoopla. First is that every time Adebayor has come out in public and categorically denied that he intends to leave Arsenal. The same cannot be said about a lot of other players around. Though this is the same guy who had said that he will retire from football if Arsenal do not win the league. But still, I get the feeling that Adebayor is speaking the truth and it is just Milan and at the max Adebayor’s agent who are involved in this. Probably the agent’s agenda is only to earn Adebayor a much higher pay packet at Arsenal in the new contract that he is supposed to be negotiating with Arsenal at this point of time. The second positive aspect is the amount of money that is being quoted as the value for Adebayor. There is talk that Milan are ready to pay 30 million Euros (23.7 million Pounds) and Arsenal are asking for 40 million Euros (31.6 million Pounds). Now those are values that even an Arsenal fan (leave alone the neutral ones) find hard to believe to be true. The guy was deemed to be absolute rubbish till last year; he spurned numerous chances throughout the season, and was held partly responsible for Arsenal not winning the league. How can somebody agree to pay 30 million for him and still fail in the bid to acquire him? But then again, we are witnessing an inflated market and Adebayor isn’t exactly rubbish, which many of the cynic Arsenal fans would like you to believe. The amount of donkey work, movement, height, work rate etc that Adebayor provides is not provided by anyone else in the EPL bar Drogba I guess. But then again, Drogba is 30 years old now, while Adebayor is yet to reach his prime. So if you ask me, I would say 30 million looks like a realistic price, though the 40 million that Arsenal ask for is a bit over the top. However, the main concern is that how much valuable is Adebayor to Arsenal?
Adebayor was the lone striker who battled it out through the last season for us. And did a very very good job at that, despite his deficiencies, what he provides none of the other strikers at Arsenal can. Bendtner is the nearest to him, but he is just 20 and some way off from the target as of now. Bendtner’s self confidence is probably his best and worst aspect. It is good as that makes the guy assured and perform to his best and bad as a little bit more humility will make sure he works that much harder to improve himself. The other main strikers i.e. Van Persie and Eduardo aren’t the physical type. Carlos Vela and Walcott are way too young and immature as yet. Hence, if Adebayor is to leave we cannot cover up from in house, barring Bendtner having a miraculous season. We would need to buy someone from the outside. The typically touted names would be David Villa, Santacruz and Mario Gomez. Now the first two again have the same problem, that they can’t provide the physical aspect. Villa and Santacruz could be replacements for Eduardo or Van Persie but not for Adebayor. David Villa is a great player, but getting him would mean the likes of Van Persie, Eduardo, Vela and Walcott (in strike department) will have to take a back seat. That’s something not advisable as per me. The little that I have seen of Mario Gomez makes me believe that the guy has the potential and the attributes to do all that Adebayor does. However, he seemed to be out of his depth at the Euros, and hence seems closer to Bendtner than Adebayor. Also, he would need time to settle in the Premier League. All this essentially means that we can forget winning anything in the coming season if Adebayor leaves. And I am pretty sure that if we do not win anything in the next season then the likes of Cesc, Rosicky and Van Persie would be ready to move on to other clubs.
Now some might say that we have already lost Flamini and will probably lose Hleb too. Hence, the coming season is already another transition and letting Adebayor go, when we are getting pretty good money might be a great idea. As far as I know, Flamini was great in the last season but he did not provide something that cannot be replaced i.e. creativity and understanding (which are needed from an attacking sense). Hence, Song or a much more beefed up Denilson should be able to do what Flamini did, however using Gilberto could still be a backward step. On the other hand, if we loose Hleb that could be a bigger problem. But then again if Rosicky can stay fit (fingers crossed) through the season, we can easily cover up for Hleb, with an improved Walcott and the hugely talented Nasri providing extra impetus.
So the conclusion for me is that Arsenal cannot afford to lose Adebayor this summer (even for 40 million) as he is priceless to them. Probably next year, once Bendtner has matured and improved selling Adebayor could be excellent business. I would end this article hoping that Milan sign Drogba, giving us dual benefit of keeping Adebayor and getting rid of Senderos’s tormentor J
Yes we CAN!!! Even for £30mil, let him go. If the opta Index can come up with hsi his goal scored to chances ratio, you’ll understand why I say this.
If Drogba goes so that Sanderos can have a reprieve, what if Chelsea buys some one who would give Sanderos twice the problem Drogba gave him, then what???
Of course I do not want Ade to go neither do I wish to keep an unhappy player. And I bet you next year he’ll be asking for more money if someone else comes with a bigger offer!!
We need the Tony Adams of this world again in teams, who are there solely for footballing reasons rather than monetary.
We are now so used to foreign players in our team that when we buy a Briitish player the 1st question asked is, ‘will he fit in?’ And unless that mind set is erased and changed these British players would feel the pressure to perform and hence fail like did a whole host of them.
on d gooner, Ade still scored 30 goals – it doesn’t matter how many he missed. Surely that means that he can score like 50 goals for us if his accuracy improves – a result of 30 goals is still 30 goals.
@ on d gooner – Ade did score 30 goals, the likes of Van Persie weren’t even around to do that.
For Senderos it’s more of a mind game, he did manage to handle Koller against the Czech’s to an extent. Maybe the next striker would not get into his head. Give the lad a chance.
The world of the Tony Adams is no longer there. Hence, I doubt you would get another Tony Adams. Agreed that having English players would make it less likely for them to move. But the pressure is not from Arsenal for the British players to perform. It’s from the British press which hypes them beyond all logical means.
I agree wholeheartedly with jamesgillesp – Adebayor might have missed lots of golden opporunities, but what striker doesn´t? And he DID score quite a few! He also worked his nuts off fighting a lone battle against two or more opposing team defenders in most of the games due to illness or unfitness of other players.
I used to reckon Bendtner was a real hope but he doesn´t appear to have improved at all this season.
By the way, James, are you from Gillespie Road or just remembering Highbury?
Evening all! i have read reports this morning linking Mourinho with a move for Van Persie. How is it that this man still has the cheek to even dream of signing an arsenal player after the Ashley Cole scandal??? Van Persie is an important player when fit, and i do admit we are yet to see the best of him because of his injuries but my faith in him is deep because he is an amazin talent. his left foot is incredible and not many left footed players around the world can match his. (remeber his heavenly goal against Charlton) so Mourinho DO 1!! and leave our players alone!!!…when the season was drawing to a close i couldn’t wait for the rumor mill to start running, and see who we would be linked with. 1st it was Ben Arfa, then it was Villa saying his preferred destination would be Arsenal because of their style of play, next it was Nasri and then Ramsey. the Ben Arfa stories stopped when we had agreed a deal wid Marseille for Nasri, then the Nasri stories stopped when apparently Arsenal and Nasri couldn’t agree on the wages so he wont be signing now until after the euro’s, Villa is too expensive but its always good to dream
) and apparently today Sky Sports are saying Villa would welcome a move to Liverpool??? WHY? so he can battle it out for fourth place with Everton… and well ramsey is offiacialy an Arsenal player, so some progress has been made. last season 1reason why we failed to win anything was because we didnt have the squad depth to cope in all competitions. so with FlamMoney gone Vela and Ramsey both in, along with Gibbs, Randal, Gilbert, Nordveit and Merida all being promoted to the 1st team it looks like we might just have the depth to cope providing Adebayor stays. however having said this, it does not mean the sqaud will have the experiance to last the distance? Helbs basically left so i would say that we need two more signings and they both have to be significant. One to show our ambition as a club, two, to improve in weak areas and three, to add the leadership we were lacking at times last season. So with Nasri its fingers crossed but who else should we try to sign? Albiol? Navas? Moutinho? Quaresma? Richards? Downing? whoever we sign i hope and pray they can slot right in to the team and bring the silverwear back to its rightful home at Arsenal. Arsenal4life
Arsenal cannot afford to lose Adebayor, I don’t think Van Persie can ever stay healthy and frankly he’s the only consistent player on that squad.
On the other hand, if you lose him, I won’t have to worry about the Gooners challenging Man Utd for the title!
Haha, Dave!
Gillespie is my surname – a wierd coincidence – i.e. Gillespie Road, and Gillespie Park which are near both Highbury and Emirates – and the Arsenal tube station – previously known as Gillespie Road Station.
I don’t live there though.
dis togo man ade we cant afford to loose him in our next season lookin at his performances in d last season he’s a good playmaker and drivers dt tends to terrorise opponent defence in his playmakin and we ave to look again at d last when most of our strikers are ruled out by injury he stands without been liable 2 be injured my only comment about him is he loses much goals bcos accdin to his starts last season he(ade) suppose to be the highest goal scorer nn the premier league but due to incapability and loss of goals he was dropped down.however i insist dt we still need dis togolese next season hopin he will improve on goals
Adebayor should go and Santacruz is brought in. He is a better finisher and he is wiser than Ade.
wenger should sell ade to barca for a huge sum and bring in villa. villa is a lot LOT better striker than ade can be in a million years. santacruz is better than ade but i would still prefer to see david villa up front.
Ade is a very good finisher and the best player in the squad.Arsenal cannot afford to lose or else i dont know who is gonna score another 30 goals next season for the gunners