I was thinking back through the 2005-2011 era. That post-Invincibles, Fabregas, stadium austerity era. Before Arsenal had powder to keep dry and before Wenger would have the money to spring a “little surprise” on us.
In the five to six years after Wenger broke up the Invincibles, the club was able to unearth some truly remarkable buys. This was a time before armchair analytics went pro, before everyone had access to Whoscored’s dribble stats, and before expected goals was even a twinkle in Mike Goodman’s eye. That summer of 2006, while Chelsea were purchasing players like Shevchenko for 50s of millions of pounds, Wenger announced the signing of Tomas Rosicky for an “undisclosed fee” (£9m).
Rosicky announced himself immediately, at least to us Americans, by scoring two incredible goals for the Czech Republic against the USA in their opening match of the 2006 World Cup.
That summer (and the January before) represented a bit of a watershed moment for Arsenal. Wenger signed Rosicky and Denilson, and was forced to make a swap of Cole for Gallas after Ashley Cole was caught meeting up with Jose Mourinho in seedy motels, working out contract details.
All the deals made a certain sense in terms of austerity. It was the first season at the Emirates Stadium, Vieira had been sold, and Bergkamp retired. We needed to keep some old heads around, so Henry was given a special deal and Wenger set about looking for cheaper replacements.
But Henry spent a lot of the season injured and only chipped in 12 goals. In something of a miracle, Arsenal finished 4th in the Premier League but were kicked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn, lost the League Cup final to Chelsea, and PSV Eindhoven knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League in the first round. From a football perspective, it was an ugly, forgettable season.
Behind the scenes there were rumors of problems in the locker room. When he wasn’t injured Henry cut a supercilious figure on the pitch. Berating his teammates when a pass didn’t come off and remonstrating them almost every moment he was on the pitch. If you’re someone who doubts those rumors (or what I saw), this attitude of his has been confirmed in the time since he left, especially at Monaco. Henry is a great footballer, but he seems to be an overbearing teammate and coach.
And as soon as Henry left Arsenal for Barcelona, it was like a breath of fresh air in the locker room. Arsenal went on a winning streak, topping the Premier League table from September’s 3-1 win over Tottenham away to the 2-1 win over Tottenham at home in December. And by the time January rolled around, for the first time since the Invincibles, it felt like Arsenal were going to win the League. My optimism about the club, about Arsene Wenger, and about this “project youth” he had put together were so sky high, that I started this blog that January and took my second trip to London. A huge part of that optimism was Emmanuel Adebayor.
Adebayor the Magnificent
In the first five months of the season, Adebayor scored 11 goals in all competitions. And he scored at a very good rate for a striker, 17% of his non-penalty shots were goals at that time. But in January, he launched into another world: he scored an additional 11 goals between January 1 and March 1. He was scoring goals at a 27% rate at that time.
It was a run against mostly poor opponents: West Ham, Birmingham (2x), Fulham, Newcastle (2x), Man City (who weren’t what they are now), and Blackburn, but you can only score against what’s in front of you when you play.
There were some serious cracks though. In the middle of that impressive run, Arsenal played Tottenham in the League Cup and lost 5-1, the now-famous “DVD Match”.
Adebayor was subbed on in that match and got into a fight with Nicklas Bendtner. Later, Adebayor would say that the spat grew out of Bendtner flaunting the rule about which type of footwear he was allowed to wear into the locker room.
A cold night
I was at the Emirates in February 2008 against Blackburn. It was a freezing cold night. I sat in the upper tier and for the first time in my short years as a football fan, I could see why the upper tier was the more expensive: you could see everything happening on the pitch.
The thing that I saw most wasn’t just the number of times Adebayor was called offside by the officials, but the number of times he just stood offside and the effect that had on his team.
I was assisted by a man seated next to me who complained about Adebayor the whole time but I have to admit that I had never seen this in a football match before: Adebayor stood offside so often that it forced turnovers in midfield because they couldn’t pass to him because he was offside.
This was a team with Fabregas in it. They would look to pass forward but Adebayor would be offside, so rather than just turn the ball over, the midfielders (or fullbacks) would have to make a sideways pass.
We fans often complain of “crab passing” sideways instead of forward but if the forwards aren’t working, if they are standing offside, or if they are allowing themselves to be covered (no movement), then the team has no choice but to pass sideways. Well, I mean there’s always a choice. I imagine after about 10 of those frustrating moments I would start aiming long kicks at Adebayor’s head. From 3 feet away.
The guy next to me (I didn’t know him) was apoplectic about Adebayor’s lazy workrate. Adebayor scored late to make the game 2-0. The guy next to me said something like “it’s about time you did something”.
I remember leaving the stadium, then flying back to America a few days later, and feeling like Arsenal were on the verge of the unthinkable. We were going to win the League.
Cup Collapse
When I got back to the States, Arsenal lost to Man U in the FA Cup – 4-0 – I can sum that match up with three very simple moments: Eboue red card, Nani seal dribble, Adebayor yellow card for diving.
I went back and read through the old blog posts and mostly I was just upset at the way that we had played that match. I did hate on Eboue quite a bit. Ok, the whole post was just “fuck Eboue”. I honestly can’t even remember the red card that well, even after I re-read the commentary, so I’m not sure why I felt so strongly that Eboue was the problem. I think I was heavily influenced by this bit by arseblog:
I’m not calling Andrew out. This was written 11 years ago and I think everyone was frustrated with Eboue.
But the point about that match was that Arsenal bottled it. Completely and utterly. It wasn’t just Eboue. Gallas had a terrible game as captain of the team, letting in two goals through stupid mistakes, and he could have been sent off for a kick out at Nani.
That 4-0 loss and the 5-1 loss to Tottenham in the League Cup showed that there was something deeply wrong at Arsenal.
Birmingham
Martin Taylor broke Eduardo’s leg with a ridiculous challenge in the opening minutes of the match against Birmingham. It was heart-wrenching and is often cited as the moment that derailed the Arsenal title challenge.
Perhaps that was the moment. But I think that there were a lot of problems going on behind the scenes and that Martin Taylor’s tackle exposed them rather than caused them.
Arsenal drew 2-2 after Gael Clichy conceded a late penalty. Then captain William Gallas had a sit-down protest in midfield. That was a clear sign of problems but so was the fact that that Adebayor punched Bendtner in the nose in the League Cup a few weeks earlier. And the way that Arsenal collapsed in the League Cup and FA Cup matches, with a sort of cowardly display was hugely worrying.
I’ve also heard it said by reporters who covered Arsenal that season that the attitude of some of the players was wrong. I believe Phillipe Auclaire singled out Adebayor, saying that by January the Togo international had felt like he’d had “scored enough goals”.
Eduardo wasn’t in some great goal-scoring form going into that match. He had scored just once in his last 10 matches prior to Birmingham. And he wasn’t even getting himself chances. He had just a total of 14 shots in those matches. He was a hugely influential player and had provided 5 assists in the run up to his injury. Most of those assists were for Adebayor.
But it’s also true that Adebayor’s form dropped off a cliff after that Blackburn match. He would only score 8 goals for the remaining three and a half months of the season. He scored three of those eight against Derby, after Arsenal were out of contention for any trophies.
Four of the other five goals, however, were all against big clubs: AC Milan, Liverpool (2x), and Man U.
But it was draws against Birmingham, Wigan, Villa, and Boro which is where Arsenal lost the League. When it counted Adebayor couldn’t help his team.
Post Arsenal
Adebayor scored 22 goals for Arsenal between August 2007 and February 2008. The next season, Wenger started him all the way through January 2009 and he put up 11 more goals for the club.
But then there was a dressing room “row”. Gallas was stripped of his captaincy in November (11 months too late), Fabregas was given the armband, and Adebayor leapt to the defense of William Gallas.
From January to May, through a combination of injury and Wenger dropping him, he scored 5 just goals for Arsenal.
Wenger sold him to Man City. He was a complete bust there, accomplishing just two moments of glory: his 100 yard dash and knee slide in front of the Arsenal supporters, and intentionally stamping on van Persie’s face.
He would never score more than 18 goals in a season for any club after that. And that was for two small clubs, Tottenham and some club in Turkey.
Promises not kept
When I think back on that 2007/08 season, I often wonder how things would have been different. If we had won the League, maybe Fabregas would have stayed on. Maybe we could have gotten van Persie back on track. Maybe Wenger’s final decade at Arsenal wouldn’t have felt like a long, slow goodbye. And certainly, a title would have legitimized the stadium project and given “project youth” the gravitas that I thought it deserved.
It always felt like Adebayor had so much more promise than he realized. Of all the players in that post-Invincibles it felt like if he’d just been professional, just put in the hard work, just played for the team, he could have been the one to carry us to the title.
Instead, in three and a half years, he scored 62 goals, 30 of them in just one season. 22 in just 6 months of work.
I think I was a bit more emotional back then. Or younger and less circumspect. But Eboue did drive me mad. 😳
Like I said, I wasn’t taking a pop at you. My post was literally “fuck Eboue!” and I meant it. I was livid for a long time after that match!
Also, a few weeks later, after the Chelsea game, where Gallas gave his “we must not be afraid” speech in front of the cameras, I called for him to be stripped of his captaincy.
I know! I just don’t think I’d talk the same way about a player today, regardless of how MUSTAFI mad he MUSTAFI made me.
I saw you Tweet that Gallas thing earlier. About as inspirational as a shoe.
I have to admit I was also shocked at the veracity of Arseblog’ Andrew’s comment on Eboue.
But then I wasn’t. Because then I remembered that’s how he wrote and we all loved it as it was terrace language and he delivered it with very sharp wit. The C word was almost compulsory in his dailies back then .
I suppose the growth of the blog made him act a bit more responsible to the diverse and global following that was building or maybe he just got old and a bit less testosteroney like we all have lol.
I’ve thought a LOT about that 2007-2008 season, and I’ve always felt that what derailed it, more than anything, was the loss of Rosicky to a long-term injury in late January 2008. The last match he played for Arsenal that season was the 3-1 win over Fulham on Jan 19. Apart from the two subsequent wins over poor opposition, our form plummeted after that. Consider, after his injury: the 4-0 United FA Cup loss, the 5-1 DVD match v Tottenham, and that run of games (beginning with THAT B’ham game) that saw us draw four games in a row. That run of draws (capped off with a loss to Chelsea) is what ended our title challenge.
I know it’s not ALL Rosicky, but I think it was a major factor (I put the Eduardo injury as a distant 2nd). We badly missed his creativity, his speed (his tracking back was outstanding, too), quick-thinking, and leadership for that last half of the season.
What might have been!
Flamini and Sagna also picked up injuries which affected us around that difficult period of that season.
That’s right. Sagna in late March, and Flamini in early April.
Sagna’s last game was the 2-1 loss to Chelsea (he scored that game), so he was around during the dreaded four-game drawldums; Flamini’s last game was, I think, the 1-1 draw against Liverpool in early April. So both were available for that crucial period of draws, and the loss to Chelsea.
Of course, once we knew the title was out of reach, and there was almost nothing to play for, we went on our customary plucky run of unbeaten games that saw us finish 3rd.
You are spot on about Adebayor’s lack of professionalism hampering our title challenge that year and it leading to him not fulfilling his true potential.
He let his ego get in the way of his development and his game suffered. That’s why he was rubbish for the rest of his career even though he had the tools to become a decent pro.
In hindsight we were too harsh on Eboue, he was a young defender in a team that never defends effectively as a whole leaving its defenders exposed to counters.
I’m glad you touched on the Eduardo leg break ending our season misconception. The 2 things that derailed our season after that incident was 1) the emotional impact it had on the young players and Gallas’ failure to lead the players through that tough period. 2) Wenger failed the team in not buying a replacement to help the team refocus on the title push instead of feeling like they’ve lost a key figure and thus any chance of winning. This would have kept Adebayor honest and more focused.
Sigh!
If we had won it in 2008, it’s nothing short of Leicester’s title. It was project youth, during the austerity days.
Yeah, I’m not sure which season I feel more bitter about, 2007-08 or the Leicester one.
I think I’m going with the Leicester one, actually. Maybe because it’s fresher in my mind, and because it felt like the first time in AGES since our nearest rivals weren’t going to mount a title challenge. That was our year. Instead, a once in a millennium event occurred.
Only Arsenal.
For me the number one factor for Arsenal not winning the league that season was the referees.
But, concentrating on Adebayor, this post made me ANGERY….
Adebayor was a great talent, and also had a terrible attitude to go with it. Which can be ok. Even desirable sometimes. But the man was primarily motivated by money. The I’ve scored enough goals was probably because of the bonuses. He moped around, got a new contract, did nothing except get a move to City. Talent wasted. Though in the answer to your question on Twitter I felt Bendtner was the bigger let down in terms of his talent. If Szczesny’s comments are anything to go by , it had to do with his drinking.
Project Youth wasn’t a total disaster though. It’s just that we couldn’t get that one title which would have justified it all, and maybe even helped us get more.
All in all, surprisingly, I look back on that era with more fondness than bitterness. The football was sublime at times. Hugely annoying at others. Never boring.
I’ve got to jump to Thierry’s defence here a bit. Although I agree he was a bit angry, in final couple of seasons, wouldn’t you be?
Imagine in the space of 2 years, going from the greatest striker for the greatest premier club side ever seen to propping up s bunch of kids after most of your mates have been sold? On top of that being 12 minutes away from winning the CL with his beloved Arsenal.
I would’ve been angry. Almost traumatised even.
Sure, be traumatized, but let’s also not forget what happened with the National team, with his time at Barcelona, and with his time as a manager. Also, have you read Lonely at the Top? Thierry Henry is not a generous teammate. He’s the opposite of that.
I love him as a player and his individual talent is undeniable but he was a massive problem in the team in 2006.
Mate, you know how excellent I think your work is.. but blaming Adebayor you miss it a bit too much. I remember that season well too. Eduardo’s injury was the watershed moment. I remember when were strugling against Everton away and Wenger brought on or started Edu with Ade,together with devastating effect. Edu scored 1 or 2 great goals and anounced himself – (one was a bid “hand-bally”.) That gave us a sencond wind for the season and from that point on it was Edu and Ade together. Ade went from 3rd to 1st choice striker literally overnight in effectively his first season in the prem. It is a massive burden for a whole season – who can do it even today. All we needed to win the league that season was Edu not to have his leg broken OR RVP to play literally to 1/10 of his ability. Ade played his part. It is strange humans always need heroes and scapegoats. Ade is universally a scapegoat, everyone forgetting the goals he scored, including an outrageous one at the League cup game we lost to Totts you mention. Xhaka (who I love) is obviously that modern day version of this scapegoating. There are no, or at least very few, villains or superhoes… all of us, including ballers, have both in us.
This isn’t about “scapegoating”.
Adebayor was a half-season wonder. Not particularly a nice guy. Problems in the dressing room. Stunningly poor workrate.
Xhaka is a mess of a footballer. Nice guy. Real mess of a player. Not his fault. He works hard. He passes fine. He’s just not really good.
Like Adebayor, Xhaka will not be a “top player” at any club other than Arsenal.
Adebayor got us to the top of the table. And if he got us to the top of the table he’s also to blame for not following through.
I have the same feeling about Ozil in 2015/16.
Mate, I have the utmost respect for your mastery of the numbers and the stats.. and quote you regularly; most recently your stats about Arsenal’s home form and how that was why I was confident Arsenal wouldn’t lose to ManU at home…But I love Xhaka and have no objectivity when it comes to him. What I will say objectively, is that you can not be in the Bundesliga team of the season, at age of 23, and not be a top player neither can you do it by chance.
I always and still think that the criticism of Ade was way beyond and disporportionate to his failings. Football, like life, is full of people with the supposed “bad attitudes”. You know the ballers/guys I am talking about… do they get the same degree of criticism as Ade…???
Let’s drop the Xhaka stuff. I’m probably never going to be convinced by him but I can see why other people like him.
Adebayor, however, is a strange one. Not sure why you defend him so. It’s not just me who said he had a bad attitude, every team he’s ever played for has fired him after a year or two. That reminds me of the way that a guy can be divorced 6 times and keeps blaming the wives.
Mate, do you remember when Raheem Sterlling said that a certain group of players get more criticism that others?? Why is it some players when they “misbehave” commentators say that they don’t want to take that thing/”tenacity” out of their game because it makes them who they are.. But other players when they “misbehave” are just bad/have a bad attitude???
A former Chelsea captain, great player, did somethingS to really really upset the dressing room – but still regarded as the consummate professional – loved by fans/players/journos alike and rightly so..- but strange that one….
Another England hero, great player – did exactly what Ade allegedly did – asking for pay raise or would look for another club.. plus some pretty wild stuff including stamping on another player’s genitals – loved by fans/players/journos alike and rightly so – but strange that one….strange
Former high profile Liverpool player ATTACKED a team mate with a Golf club – not generally regarded by anyone to have a bad attitude and rightly so, in fact he left to go to City…. strange
Who decides who has a bad attitude..Let’s just open our eyes…Mate not defending.. Just not judging..
Really shows how important chemistry is in a dressing room. Having players with the right mindset makes a huge difference. The club will lose true leaders when Cech and Ramsey leave this summer. I still remember the season when Mertesacker and Flamini scolded Ozil for his attitude on the pitch. Koscielny is not really vocal, so who will perform that job in the dressing room?
so you’re telling me that arsenal’s back-up center forward, who was on £30k a week, is good enough to come into the side and score 30 goals in a season but you have the audacity to say he’s a reason arsenal didn’t win any silverware that season? nuts!
mind you, he’s the back-up, being paid like a back-up. do you know how many teams would kill to have a starting center forward that can score 30 goals in a season, let alone a backup?
do you remember how hard adebayor worked? what prophetically happened is that he couldn’t sustain that work rate without extreme fatigue settling in during games, which is likely the main reason he was offsides so frequently. i don’t think he was lazy. likewise, philippe auclair’s assertion that he’d scored enough goals is arrogant and disrespectful; as if he could read adebayor’s mind.
in the ’08-’09 season, adebayor scored eleven goals in half a season which is decent return, but the idea that he was dropped by wenger is wrong. he began sharing time with a fit again van persie. in early 2009, he got ryan shawcrossed 4 yard off the pitch; an injury that was foreshadowing for things to come with aaron ramsey about a year later. that injury sat ade down until, virtually, the end of the season.
likewise, shard, he wasn’t driven by money. after proving how good of a goal scorer he was, he was well within his right to expect more money based on his production. arsenal have paid plenty of players millions based on potential that was never realized. why shouldn’t he get paid after proving he can get it done, not just potential? if you think it’s about money, put yourself in his shoes and that will make everything clear. wenger simply didn’t want to pay him, so adebayor’s agent did what agents get paid to do.
in no way am i declaring adebayor was some sort of angel. he was a young player doing young player sh*t; thinking he had all the answers when he hadn’t a clue. with that, he was dynamite for arsenal that season and i’m not going to see him thrown under the bus after such a significant impact he had on that team. the real blame should be placed, not on him or gallas for that matter. it should be blamed on arsene wenger.
We can keep playing the who’s REALLY to blame game all the time. But in terms of Adebayor’s attitude he was motivated by money. He sulked, flirted with Beyonce Milan, got his 80k per week and then proceeded to play half heartedly. A talented player, but clearly not hard working after the initial period, as demonstrated through the rest of his career as well.
adebayor expressed flattery from the milan interest but never said he wanted to leave arsenal or the typical “in football, you never know” cliche things that players often say. he wanted to play for arsenal, where his idol played, and he was living the dream.
as for money, imagine putting in work valued at £100k but only getting paid £30k with the company you work for showing no interest in increasing your pay. would you be considered motivated by money if you sought to get paid what you were worth? for me, adebayor proved he was certainly worth more than £30k a week and deserved a pay raise.
Yes, I am going to say exactly that.
He got us 22 goals and then went missing, for the rest of his career. If he was as good as everyone seems to think then van Persie wouldn’t have gotten back into the team. He would have kicked on at Man City. He would have been starter at Tottenham. Sorry to break this to you but his awful attitude was a major reason why Arsenal lost the league that season.
okay tim, you’re moving the goal posts. we were talking about how at fault ade was for arsenal not winning silverware in the ’07-’08 season. now, you’re talking about how good he was.
i don’t think anyone in their right mind would say adebayor was better than van persie. in fact, i think you’d be hard pressed to find 5 strikers in world football better than van persie at that time. i’ve clearly said ade was the back-up. the biggest difference between the two at that time is adebayor had proven he could stay off the treatment table and he’d proven he could score a lot of goals for arsenal. rvp had not.
a reasonable counter would be that ade, who was given the nod to be a starter for the first time in his career, went out and ran, trying to impress. what he came to realize is that his work rate was unsustainable, as he found himself in on goal and missing easy chances due to fatigue; he had to slow down. arsenal fans took his slowdown as him being lazy.
you say that ade’s attitude is the reason arsenal lost the title. no. i say his production (30 goals as a backup) is the only reason were in the title race to begin with. since the invincibles, arsenal haven’t even come close to a championship. arsenal’s title collapse was on arsene wenger’s management, not a backup striker.
Joshuad mate, I am 150% with you on this. Excessive and disproportionate criticism of Ade has other origins. If anyone can tell me a third choice striker that scored 30 goals in 48 appearances and yet dubbed “lazy”.. I would be very interested. Now the fact he could not keep RVP out of the team is an indicator, Ade was “not that good”. Quick question. When RVP went to ManU who was the better striker Rooney or RVP? Ade is not perfect but criticism way beyond his faults.
Adebayor was a funny one. Our first sight of him, and we were like, “wtf is that?”
A tall, streetlamp of a player whose first touch was concrete who did not look anything special. But then, for one season, he showed us what Arsene saw in him. I remember a cool finish with the outside of his foot against Manchester United, the only goal of the game.
He was excellent for that period, but somehow he never hinted at permanence. The player he most looked like (stylistically and physically) was Kanu, but Kanu was a league above him technically.
I attended Arsenal games regularly in that period, and can recall vividly what Tim saw… that he simply stopped working after a time. He downed tools, and a section of the crowd turned on him before he left.
Today, that’s the one type of play that Arsenal has lacked since Giroud left… a classic CF (though Laca does a darned good impression of one) like OG, Diego Costa… or Adebayor.