After the ho-hum 2-2 draw away to Barnet and the ho-hum “we all knew he was leaving because he acted like such a jerk” transfer of Adebayor, it’s pretty quiet out there today.
I would like to direct your attention to Adebayor’s interview over at Man City’s home page, because three things stick out. First, in talking about what he’s going to do for City supporters, he claims he’s always given his best at every club, and so he will keep giving his best. I really do hope he gives them his best: his top quality offsides, and his very best dressing room strife. Now that he’s the top paid player in the EPL, I also hope that guys like Tevez, who work their asses off, get super frustrated with Adebayor and the huge paycheck he commands for lounging around.
Second, don’t be surprised if Mark Hughes is incapable of motivating Adebayor and we see him slip down the bench behind Roque Santa Cruz after the first 5 games of the season or so. If he puts in the kinds of performances for them that he did for us, there will be no room for him at the strikers table in a City squad that has 9 men to fill the chairs. Typically, a manager would be embarrassed to sit a player making £170,000/wk but this is one case where they will sit him if he becomes a distraction.
Third, the watch he’s wearing in that interview is, well, ostentatious. If you’re going to leave the club who nurtured you, stood by you when all others thought you were crap, and go to a team that pays you double, a team of mercenaries, and sit in an interview and talk about how you’re not doing it for the money — you may want to take off the $100,000 diamond studded watch.
Oh well, it’s over now, he’s one of the enemy. Thanks for the goals big fella, may you lose a step in your stride and may you always find yourself offside.
The question on the lips of every Arsenal supporter now is “what will Wenger do with the money?” And so I’m sure many of you have gone to the trusty ole Football Manager and are ready to tell us all who we can get for £25m.
Go for it. In the past I’ve said that you can’t speculate because you don’t know how much so and so is worth, but now you know. Here’s £25m, spend it how you see fit.
You should know, however, that after the Barnet match, the boss publicly said that Arsenal will only buy “if we find the right players and we feel it is needed, but we are not in a hurry now.” Of course, I think we’d all like to believe that this is because he’s playing things close to his chest and doesn’t want to artificially inflate the price of any target. But given his recent history, sigh, it might just be true that Wenger thinks this squad can handle the pressure. As the unofficial Wenger Weatherman, I’d say that the transfer outlook is partly cloudy with a 50% chance of not buying anyone.
I tend to agree with Arsene that Arsenal don’t need another forward, but I sincerely hope he sees the need for reinforcements in the midfield and possibly defense. After all, pretty much everyone on the planet, including the team captain has said so. And, no, I’m not condemning Song and Denilson, they are good players who would grow exponentially under the careful, quiet, tutelage of someone like Toulalan.
Anyway, there’s really nothing going on today. The team is flying to Austria for their annual tour of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s birthplace, where they will start their twice a day workouts and get into shape. The next pre-season friendly is on Tuesday and you can see it only on Arsenal TV Online.
One last thing I want to mention is that the Sounders v. Chelsea game yesterday was pretty neat. No, I don’t mean that the Sounders got beat by the Scum, I mean that the fans were singing the whole time! I barely even heard those annoying horns! Now, that could have been accomplished through strategic mic placements but even if it was, it indicates a commitment on the part of the club, and ESPN, to make MLS matches more watchable and interactive for the fans. If it was genuine raucous support by 70,000 people, well then I’m proud of the fans!
The other really spectacular thing is that the match was broadcast in HD. I’ve seen matches in HD before and frankly they are always eye-poppingly beautiful. I can’t wait to see Arsenal in HD and if ESPN gets the EPL feed over here that will happen sooner rather than later.
There was only one sort of black mark on the game and that was the pitch. I guess they brought in a real grass pitch and laid it over the top of the plastic pitch they normally play on. There were clearly problems with the temporary pitch as several players were unable to control the ball and even one time the goalkeeper Keller put his foot on the ball, to stop it, and promptly fell over. I guess they are donating that pitch to a local school, which is nice, and they’ll bring it back in for the Barcelona game, which is also nice, but as an American, I guess I’ll have to wait and just dream of the day that “soccer” is played on grass here.
That’s all for today, see you all tomorrow.
Tim, Fox Soccer will be launching a HD channel before the UCL eliminations start (so I would guess January 1st?)…Which is glorious because we won’t have to listen to ESPN or Fox’s in house announcing crew.
And I saw the watch and laughed, too. He might as well spend some money on a diamond studded Segway or Lawn Chair (he could set it up about 10 yards outside the box, where you could usually find him standing 94.7 percent of the time) so he can be his usual lazy self, albiet in style.
The 25 mil will get stashed and not spent until january. We might see someone like Serdar Tasci or Roman Pandev come in, and Chamakh would be a possibility as well. Don’t get your hopes up for KJH. I think Wenger will do a little bit of tinkering with the squad knowing he has 25 to blow in January if he needs reinforcements. Not necessarily what I want, but I can see it happening.
Since Ade is concerned of his image in Togo, here are some numbers.
Ok, as of today the exchange rate is about $1.63 per pound. Assuming his contract is 170,000 pounds per weeks, that is the equivalent of $ 277,100 per week. Broken down on an hourly basis, he takes home a meager $1,649.40 per hour (on a 24-hour scale).
Meanwhile, the PPP Per Capita GDP of Togo is $810 per year; Ade will earn a little more than that in 30 minutes. If he doesn’t do some serious charity work, he may not be able to show his face there again.
Tim, as you alluded to, it would not surprise me at all that Adebayor finds himself benched for Santa Cruz, Tevez, and co. Those two guys work hard and it’s not as if Robinho will get benched. Ade will look even lazier relative to Bellamy, who is a high motor striker. Man City might not be done bringing in strikers either. My guess is Ade finds himself in Italy next year playing for a squad like Fiorentino or something. Definitely sad turn of events seeing him not become the player he should’ve become with Arsenal, but you can’t will a player to want to commit to the club. We do need to toughen up and sharpen up the passing at midfield, and that’s the highest priority. Getting Chamakh does nothing for us. If we’re going to get another striker, he’s gotta be an upgrade on Ade and Van Persie. Hard to find the next Henry, but we’ve at least got to get a striker closer to that level than what we have on the team now. Problem is, there’s no one realistically available for that. Oh, well. Bendy should net 20 goals easily this year now at least.
At last the disruptive influence of ‘run that offside rule past me one more time’ has finally departed for pastures new. With all that striking talent, in name if nothing else, his backside and the bench are going to be firm friends. Particularly as they don’t have the extra workload of European Games, and will be out of the Carling and FA Cup before they can remember each other’s names.
As for charitable contributions in Togo, with the amount that he’s earning, even small contributions would most likely destabilize the economy. However, he first has to make charitable contributions to Her Majesty’s Inland Revenue, which are, eye watering, and wallet depleting. Based on the alleged $275,000 per week, his annual tax bill is around $5,670,000. National Insurance (state pension contribution, free healthcare, unemployment benefit) takes another $150,000, leaving him with a miserable $8,460,000 to struggle on. It doesn’t end there, as ManCiteh have to pay a further, $1,830,000 employers’ National Insurance on top. It’s gonna be tough!
I wonder if a $100,000 watch tells the time 5,000 times better than a $20 watch?
Saw some footage of Chamakh, he look better than I thought, not like Ade, or Bendtner, seems hard to move off the ball, has a much faster amble than Ade, and a more controlled shot than Nic. Ok he’s missed a few, at least he’s in position and makes the room. Also see that Dzeko’s name has shown in the frame again. Negredo has been linked with Spud’s interest, so who knows, perhaps Le Boss will wait until the New Year?
Viva!
Would be hilarious to see him benched and sold off to a mid table club in a season or two. Wait, City is a mid table club. Ahahaha
it seems silly that people in togo could consider £170 a week ridiculous and not £80,000 a week. it might be half as much but it’s still INCREDIBLY high- so high that around that sort of level those pay rises no longer make a difference because you’d be a fucking idiot to spend your way through all that cash. ok judging by the watch he is a fucking idiot then. oh well, at least if he spends twice as much on charity (i don’t have my hopes up) that’s something.
I’m sorry but your observation on Adebayor was as fickle as the so supporters who felt that 46 goals over two seasons were not enough. However your description would fit any footballer in the top four htherefore does not hold much weight with me. As for Arsene Wengers comments: the man is just doing what any good manager would do and that is to try to install the neccesary confidence that players who play at the top level require, especially in such a pressurised enviroment(especially if your fickle supporters embarress you and try to destroy that confidence).
@Wayne, dude, if you read this site a little you would know that I have been an ardent supporter of Ade. The facts are pretty clear that he took supporters like me for granted and moved on not to further his career but to buy bigger, more expensive watches. He’s one step removed from Ashley Cole in my mind. Plus, who gives a shit about him now? He is just another mercenary City player now. Frankly I hope he and everyone else on that team fail miserably. That’s no less than they deserve.
I am one of the few, maybe the only one, who is truly sorry Ade is leaving. I see someone with so much talent who could easily have become an Arsenal legend, but who may never fulfill his promise a la Anelka, because of bad advice and probably limited education.
One major point here though, is that it was the Arsenal fans who drove him from the fold as he was not mentally strong enough to endure “fan abuse”, many times, unfairly so.
It is about time our fans learn to support the Club and our players rather than boo them unmercifully and have our bastion “The Emirates”, become an arena where visiting teams delight in the heckling of our own players.
Regardless of our feelings towards players, we need to show them support, lift their spirits and encourage them to greater heights. Personally, as a human being I would have a hard time fighting for fans which booed me.
I agree CK, I think Adebayor’s exit is a loss for us on the field.
Adebayor became a magnet for the on-field frustrations of fans and the things they dislike about modern day footballers. Some of the criticism was warranted but it went into hyperbole – evidenced by many of the main blog writers demonising him.
You raise the point about fan agitation, heckling and booing. For me, it is what it is. It reflects the lack of consistency between what they are told and what they get. Both the manager and the players say things that aren’t then backed up in action. Ultimately showing their displeasure publicly is the only way fans can respond. It’s an earthy form of accountability and I think given the level of remuneration that the manager and players get they need accountability.
Wenger responded angrily to the barbs, and received a bit of soothing, yet I think it will soon resurface if the team flumps again.
@CaribKid69, Yes, Ade has talent AND potential. Possibly, Wenger’s laid back style of coaching obviously was not what Ade needed to keep his focus.
Maybe, Ade needs someone “in his face”, more of a disciplinarian like a Mark Hughes.
OR MAYBE, Ade’s unsettled ego will never find harmony with any manager or team.
I guess we can all agree that 46 goals is a good result. Before last summer, all of us, fans, team mates, and Le Boss were most probably in agreement that Adebayor was proving to be a goal getter of distinction.
Then we had the summer of discontent, the flirting with other options. A situation that irritated the fans, and I suspect all at the club.
After declarations of his allegiance, he had an opportunity to mend bridges and heal the wounds. Yet he turned in poor performances, and clearly was not giving his all to the cause.
Both as a fan, a team mate, and a boss you have to say it was not acceptable, even if you don’t say it aloud. In the end it became a betrayal of the trust placed in him, and hence the turning against him by the fans who recognised the situation.
To give your all and be poor is forgiveable, but to give next to nothing and be poor is not.
Viva!
Please stop the Ade hate, yes he has gone because you guys pushed him out of the team. I wonder why Ade should be the scapegoat all the time now that he gone you might switch to Bendtner or anyother player. We cant blame him for the Cl semi final exit it was Man U that eliminated us and its a big team and they were the defending champs remember. Ade scored two goals in the quarter finals one will always be remembered. One person cannot be the cause of the over 30 points gap behind the EPL winner. Pse lets get our facts right. Ade was not responsible for the poor defending, lack of quality defensive midfielder,debts etc. He didnt tell us to move to Emirates. So give him a break let him enjoy his money.
@Musa, Even Henry would track back and defend. RVP does as well. Walcott and Bendtner shouldn’t because it causes more problems than it solves. Adebayor was too busy waiting for the ball over the top to score the brilliant goal, no goal, “the flag went up”. Ooops.
See my previous post about ‘love’ and ‘fight’, words that Adebayor will now apply to ‘fill to in the blank’ football club.
I truly admire those of you expressing the spirit of forgiveness toward Adebayor our now former wayward son. “Spare the rod and spoil the child I say”.
We will see if the “Arsenal curse” will befalls Adebayor as it has many other players who left us on poor terms. The latest ‘cursed’ victim is Hleb who now will be a make weight addition in the Ibrahimovic/Eto’o swap.
Adebayor is now claiminig that Arsenal need the money. You read that right. We needed the money. Memo to Adebayor: we bought Vermaelen well before your sale was wrapped up, chump. That’s the same line that Kaka used on his way to Real Madrid. Big differences here though. Adebayor is not Kaka. Kaka turned down Man City. Berlusconi asked Kaka to go Real because AC Milan could really needed the money. That’s why the only player Milan has brought in is free transfer Onyewu and they are trying to get Fabiano for peanuts. Adebayor ‘had’ to accept the Man City offer after Milan did not return his agent’s calls. Man City is certainly no Beyonce, more like Amy Winehouse if you ask me.
Arsenal will continue to play a 4-5-1 because Wenger still hasn’t replaced Vieira/Flamini. Who’s going to lead our attack now? The only players I’ve seen do it well was Henry, Reyes, and Adebayor. They all had the pace and power to do it well.
Arsenal have a lot of strikers now but who’s good enough to lead the line against BPL opposition and perform to good effect? van Persie did well in the pre-season for the ’07-’08 season but we were impotent in attack last year with him and Bendtner trying it out. That leaves Arshavin, Walcott, Vela, and Eduardo; four midgets. We’ll see.
Throughout the Wenger era, Arsenal have always had a big, pacy, powerful striker. Make no mistake, we’ll miss Ade as teams will play a high line and press us, like Middlesborough did when they beat us a few years ago. We’ll see how well we cope.
I agree JD.
@joshuad, Ade’s run of form in the 07/08 season was more a result of our midfield strength/service of Hleb, Rosicky, and Cesc. Their effectiveness was in large part a result of Flamini’s hard work.
Last year the weakness of our midfield impacted the effectiveness of ALL our strikers and placed undue pressure upon our defense.
I’m sure we will see Theo move to a more central position – and utilize his quickness against defenses that employ the high line.
We will have Arshavin, Rosicky, and Cesc (plus Eduardo and Bendtner) to provide the service.
Bordeaux are apparently looking to rework Chamakh’s contract. I hope he signs it. Anybody who can say Blackburn and Arsenal in the same sentence is a clown.
If Chamakh signs for Arsenal it will be a first. Wenger’s targets are always off-radar. When Wenger came out and spoke about Chamakh even before Adebayor left it confirmed that he can’t be a serious option.
(unless of course Wenger agreed some sort of ‘option to buy’ with Bordeaux).
I’ll watch Liverpool because I think Torres is the best striker in the world today.
I’ll watch Man U to see if Rooney can carry C.Ronaldo’s jockstrap.
I’ll watch Chelsea to see if Ancelotti is the new ‘special one’.
I’ll watch Hull to see Bobby Zamora score hat tricks.
I’ll watch Man City to see 25m Adebayor on the bench
The sale of Adebayor again demonstrates the strength and weakness in our current approach. The strength is attracting an excellent transfer fee for a player that we procured relatively cheaply. The weakness is that once a player feels he has matured, he wants to be in a winning team or at least a team he feels is capable of winning.
A year ago, after a season in which we led for 2/3’s of the season – Flamini, Hleb and Adebayor – did their own footballers’ calibrations and decided this team wasn’t a winning one. So 3 of the 5 players who had excellent seasons decided they wanted to leave (the other 2 being Fabregas and Sagna). It’s hard to develop a winning team when you’re swimming against the tide of footballers ‘natural’ inclinations.
The other interesting aspect to Adebayor’s exit is the parallel to Vieira and Henry. Once a player starts entertaining overtures from other clubs it’s almost impossible to reintegrate him to the cause. The only effective medicine is ‘winning’. Vieira, despite annual daliances, stayed because we kept winning, Henry left because the likelihood of winning seemed dim, ditto Adebayor. Interesting that bumper contracts for both Henry and Adebayor didn’t make the pain of being uncompetitive go away.
Shame about Adebayor.
@Kiwi, yes Flamini and Ade have both moved on to bigger and better things, like the UEFA cup, or being the 8th option on a squad.
Or maybe it was all about the paychecks and they used the graciousness of Arsene and the name of Arsenal to cash in?
Oh and let’s not forget Hleb who will be moving to his new new dream club, Stuttgart, next season after spending a year at Barca polishing their bench.
Setting sarcasim aside, what they now achieve or don’t achieve at their new clubs is largely academic to me. I care only for Arsenal and the key issue is they didn’t want to stay with us.
When Adebayor, Flamini and Hleb left, we lost out. Our ambitions to win took a hit. We invested time in their development and when that started to make an on-field return and demonstrated that they could play an important part in our team they didn’t see staying at the Emirates as an attractive option. They left.
So according to our current MO we bring in young replacements and start again. That seems like a pretty big chink in our strategy.
@Tim, Tim, on your point “maybe it was all about the paychecks”, yes, I think the offer of a better contract would be an allure for any player and was highly significant to Flamini, Hleb and Adebayor.
But also, no, I think retreating to that simplistic analysis may be comforting but it ignores the context in which Wenger operates in. Every Arsenal player who presents as a ‘performer’ will attract better offers. The only deterrent (and even then it won’t always work – refer to the example of Mr C.Ronaldo) is success, probable success or a tangible sense that success is within grasp. If a player starts to feel that he is unlikely to enjoy success at Arsenal he becomes more likely to be open to other offers.
In my opinion that is why many ManU players stay at the club – a guy like Vidic stays at ManU despite being highly prized. Why? Because he gets paid wellish and enjoys success and he feels he is likely to keep enjoying success – so why go elsewhere? ManU also benefit from a smattering of British players who in addition to being well paid and enjoying success feel more at home in the UK. Guys like Scholes, Giggs & Neville, and now Ferdinand and Rooney.
So retaining players in a highly competitive ego-driven environment where there is always someone willing to offer your players more is an art.
@Kiwi, well, the facts are that Flamini and Adebayor who in your theory were supposedly “looking for success” both went to teams where there was little or no chance of attaining success.
What you’re talking about is a set of complex psychological unknowns, but when you look at the actions of the players and the outcomes of those actions this is very simple; they left for the money. Especially those two.
First, Adebayor didn’t request a transfer or turn down an Arsenal contract, he was sold. He was nothing like Flamini or Hleb. Second, only an idiot would think he didn’t read all the crap being spewed about him all over the internet. It’s too easy to say that the fans didn’t want me there anymore. Third, why shouldn’t he get paid? I know that if I were him, I’d get paid and show off my ridiculous watch just to make sure all my haters stay sharp.
Anyone who thinks Ade is going to sit the bench and isn’t going to score goals is out of their fucking mind. It’s like saying Drogba, Anelka, and Torres aren’t going to score. As long as Lampard and Gerrard are supporting them, they will get their goals. Who supported Adebayor? Arshavin would have been his foil and Tevez will be at Man City.
Anyway, he’s gone. I wish him the best but we’ll have to wait and see how we cope without him.
Just think, Adebayor scored 16 goals in an injury-riddled and so-called poor season. van Persie managed only four goals more and he was fit all year. Once he gets it going with his new team mates, he’ll be a monster. This is a bad decision.
@joshuad, using your reasoning, what were Bendtner’s goal totals? ( who most of the 1st have of the season was only a sub)
If Ade gets his head squared on, he will help Citeh.
Im disgusted by all the arsenal fans who directed all their anger on Adebayor, he was and is still a good playa & definitely arsenal will miss him, why pass all the anger on him while in the previous campaign he did excellently well were it no for the defensive lapses of clichy and injury to Eduardo. The last season he still managed to score 16 goals despite several injury setbacks. As long as arsenal supporters dont get behind the team success wont come that easily. everybody has lapses in their career and all you ade haters are no exception. So i fully support him and by the way who of you wouldnt switch jobs to a better paying institution where he gets double figures so lets stop being hypocritical if i was him i would do the same
@Charles-kenya, No-one disputes that he was a good player, the issue I have is he is a lazy wanker who looked out only for himself. Once Milan turned his head he didn’t give a shit and suddenly thought he was better than he actually is. As for whether the public would sell their souls for extra pay, maybe I would, but not if I was already earning £80,000 a week. What can you not do with £80,000 a week?
Talking about quitter, Hleb has confessed that his move from Arsenal to Barcelona last year was a mistake he now regrets.
“When you mostly sit on the bench, winning titles brings very little joy, while getting to the last eight of the Champions League with Arsenal was unforgettable”
“I regret my move from London, but unfortunately nothing can be done about it now”
Exactly. Enjoy your dream about a bigger club and trophies. Now you have everything except the joy of playing great football along great teammates with great manager, and great support from fans who really loved you.
Sometimes, people try to pursuit happiness without awareness that it is right there, in front of their eyes.