By JA
It is with sad news today that I am to announce a player who potentially could have become an Arsenal Legend is reported missing. It seems that once again an Ex-Gunner who unfortunately finds a route to the wrong side of North London has his hopes and dreams shattered right before his eyes. Let us not forget David Bentley, who was touted as the new David Beckham, is now flipping burgers at a B&Q car park in Enfield.
After beginning his career in France with Metz and then Monaco, Adebayor was signed by Arsenal for around £3m in January 13th 2006. In his first game for the club Adebayor scored after just 21 minutes in a 2-0 win over Birmingham. His first season total of 4 out of 10 appearances was a decent return for a ‘rough diamond’. He was cup-tied for the Champions League final that year having already represented Monaco.
In his next few seasons the contribution Adebayor made to Arsenal and the importance of his goals meant that he was well on the way to being a player that Wenger would have been looking to build a team around. He scored a winning goal in a 1-0 victory at Old Trafford and he scored an absolutely superb brace against his current employers Spurs. He also scored the 100th goal milestone at the Emirates amongst a total of 46 goals that he eventually scored for us. In only 104 appearances it was a very decent return.
But he had a sinister side too. Adebayor was greedy. There are no two ways about it. Once he was at a certain status level at Arsenal he was looking to move on. This was a club that in 3 years had literally brought him to prominence and had him learn from the best in Henry and co. Yet when he started to become a talisman he started edging for a deal with literally any club that took an interest in him. He was approached by AC Milan in the Summer of 2008, and if I remember rightly, refused to train and was trying to hold the club to ransom to allow him to leave. The club stood firm, and Adebayor eventually signed a new contract. Not because he had a long term ambition of playing for Arsenal but so that he would at least earn more for the approaching season. In his first game back at the Emirates that season its fair to say his reception was more than frosty. Regardless of that he went on to have a decent season of 16 goals, 4 behind Robin Van Persie.
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In the summer of 2009, Adebayor finally got the move he was waiting for… was it AC Milan you ask, or Juventus? or perhaps Barcelona? nope none of the above. It was the second best team in Manchester. Manchester City. This was a team that had finished 10th with 22 points less than Arsenal the previous season. Aston Villa and Fulham both were higher in the final standings than them to put it into further context. However, they did have a bucket load of cash and were prepared to pay him a huge salary and also give Arsenal £25m for the honour. Often people said at the time for £25m they would have driven him there themselves. I personally couldn’t have thought of anything worse than sitting on the M6 with him.
Adebayor, in my opinion summed up his whole career whilst playing for Manchester City. It was against us in a defeat that was quite hard to take. Manchester City won 4-2 but the game probably won’t be mainly remembered due to the score. Anyway, Adebayor scored in this game at the opposite end to the Arsenal fans. He then thought it might be a good idea to run the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of those fans. To this day I still can’t work out why you would do that? I look at the class of Lampard and others who do not celebrate when they score against a club that has made them and even though Adebayor wasn’t with Arsenal a great amount of time you can’t deny that we made him and his best years were with us. Just so you are aware too in the years of 2009/10 Manchester city finished 8 points behind Arsenal and were also behind Spurs. It wasn’t until the following season when Adebayor was deemed surplus to requirements that City finished a place above us with 3 points more.
By that stage Adebayor had been loaned out to Real Madrid till the end of the 2010-11 season and when he returned to City was asked to train with the youth team. So I think you can see what impression this guy made around the club even at City. Mancini was a relatively new manager who barely knew Adebayor yet he knew enough to not want him near the elite players.
Then came the darkest moment in Adebayor’s life. I expect some of you think it was when his Togo coach was targeted by gunfire and in which 3 people were killed however you’d be wrong. The darkest moment of his career was signing for Spurs. Not that any Arsenal fan actually cared at this stage. It was more comedy factor of how low can this guy go in his life. He was on the cusp of being a legend at Arsenal, he saw the money of City (but no trophies in his time), he felt then he was good enough for Madrid, yet here now he was back at Spurs.
Let’s face it he was the boy that had it all, yet wanted more. I think he should be used as an example to all youngsters growing up. Don’t be fooled Adebayor had talent. But his head was too easily turned and he became greedy and very lazy on the pitch too.
Last night was the January Transfer Window Deadline Day and Adebayor, who in his mind and at only 30 years old would have been waiting for a call from Pep Guardiola or similar. Yet the phone did ring but on the other end it was Sam Allardyce, Harry Redknapp and Mark Hughes all looking for an ugly, greedy, lazy striker.
Adebayor surprisingly found some pride and remained at Spurs. (It’s actually hard to write that part). I think that it is likely to suggest that I don’t feel we will see Adebayor play again for Spurs this season, however it would be great to laugh at him one last time this coming Saturday.
Manu, if you read this I want you to know that your whole career is a failure. Yes you are a very rich player, that there’s no doubt, but you have no soul. You sold that long ago.
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