Not much about football bugs me, but players' egos really get on my nerves!
First, this summer we had Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo mouthing off about wanting a move to Real Madrid. Now we have Emmanuel Adebayor deciding if Arsenal is a big enough club for him?
I can't believe it!
Ronaldo was the English Player-of the-Year and one of the best overall players over the last few years. His ego is, as we know, uncontrollable but at least he lives up to it on the field. At least in some peoples eyes.
- B/R Ticket Guide
Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor was given a chance by Arsene Wenger after 20 goals in 100 games for AS Monaco. Hardly a dead certainty for a big move but a big move he got!
How does he repay Arsene Wenger? His head swells to twice its size and he thinks after one good season he is Thierry Henry!
What scares me more is, did Arsenal really turn down a £25 million bid for him?
I've read posts from Arsenal fans all over the Internet admitting what I've always believed. He is well and truly over-rated and the Gunners should be £25 million richer and laughing.
I believe there is only one reason Arsenal don't want to sell him.
They are embarrassed to lose two (Flamini and Adebayor) one-season wonders with inflated egos in one summer. Arsenal are determined not to be seen as a club that has to sell big players or is not big enough to keep star names.
A club who can't keep their star players will not attract star players!
Simple as that!
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6 months ago
spot on
from 6 months ago
Thanks for the fan add Rajesh.
from 6 months ago
Nice assessment. I think in a club's bid to be successful, they go for in-form players and then such clubs (Chelsea, Real Madrid, AC Milan, Barcelona, etc) make bids that could make you go dizzy. We know the life span of a footballer could be short as a result of sever injury, but the flaunting of crazy money is a factor responsible for Adebayor's agitation.
Also a player might have the dream to play for a particular club but never got the opportunity. When the spotlight is beamed on them and that club's interested, they use that as an avenue to make unnecessary demands in a bid to move to that club. That could be another reason for his being agitated.
6 months ago
Spot on Andrew, both had their first really goos season(I think the same could be said of Hleb, although he always showed a lot of quality) and now they decide that they are off! Madness.
from 6 months ago
I was thinking about bringing Hleb in but he has been far less outspoken and didn't deserve this bad press.
Thanks for the feedback.
6 months ago
Good article, excellent insights.
from 6 months ago
Thanks Chris. Glad you enjoyed it.
6 months ago
Its a shame arsenals players don't have as much class off the pitch as they do on it but i'm not going to feel to sorry for wenger if he had invested in some english talent in the past he wouldn't be looking at the backbone of his team jumping ship.
from 6 months ago
Another good point...English players tend to be more loyal to the big clubs, usually because they are as high as they can go and don't have foreign options or Barcelona chasing them.
6 months ago
Obviously! No club wants to be seen as a selling club and Arsenal are doing just that - Adebayor should not move and should get his head back down to earth, because he's just a striker worth 10 million pounds and has a lot more to prove.
from 6 months ago
Damn straight!
6 months ago
I guess i just don't get it, but Arsenal didn't "make" Adebayor. Emanuel is a young striker who had a breakout season, he has 7 years or so of top flight football in him. He wants to get paid. This is not a question of how "big" Arsenal is, its an inditement on the richest club in England. That they refuse to pay their players, just examine Arsenal's wage structure and its clear, players like Fabragas, and Adebayor are grossly underpaid, and its ridiculous considering how much in total revenues the make.
I'm on the players side pay them market value, or don't get upset when they walk out the door. Don't blame the players because they can't triple their pay. Loyalty does pay the bills at 60, now does it.
from 6 months ago
I guess i just don't get it, but Arsenal didn't "make" Adebayor. Emanuel is a young striker who had a breakout season, he has 7 years or so of top flight football in him. He wants to get paid. This is not a question of how "big" Arsenal is, its an inditement on the richest club in England. That they refuse to pay their players, just examine Arsenal's wage structure and its clear, players like Fabragas, and Adebayor are grossly underpaid, and its ridiculous considering how much in total revenues they make.
I'm on the players side pay them market value, or don't get upset when they walk out the door. Don't blame the players because they can triple their pay. Loyalty doesn't pay the bills at the age of 60, now does it.
fixed screw ups
from 6 months ago
Ken, Arsenal simply can't afford to pay the wages of United or Chelsea. They are paying off the new stadium and it will take time for the finances to sort themselves out.
He earns more than enough to pay the bills at 60 already.
The whole point here Ken, is that he is simply not that good....end of.
6 months ago
Good piece Andrew..It is true..Adebayors lost his head..
from 6 months ago
Thanks mate. Nice to have another talked about article.
6 months ago
Who does Adebayor think he is?! He's NO Thierry Henry that's for sure!
from 6 months ago
It must be his agent,,,,,they have a lot to answer for.
6 months ago
The Barcelona president is desperate for a big signing before he comes up for re-election at the club. Arsenal will let Adebayor go, and they will recieve GBP 30 million for him.
By the way Arsenal have the third highest wages bill in the premier league, behind Chelsea (1/2 a billion GBP pumped in by Abramovich) and the self styled biggest club in the world, Man United.
So the club's players wont be starving when they retire.
Adebayor has had three quarteres of a good season. He was never the same after he had his hair cut!! But would have had his contract re-negotiated this close season, if he had shown any loyalty.
GBP30 million would be great business by the club.
from 6 months ago
I say the same mate. Just let him go, I wouldn't take all this riubbish if I was Arsene. The Frenchman is getting soft!
6 months ago
Adebayor is so over rated it's ridiculous. He had a purple patch at the start of last season and everyone forgot how useless he was the season and a half before. Yes, he is young but so what? He had a great start to the 07/08 season and then petered out. He scored plenty of goals to be fair but.. did that make him worth £25m? And the cheek of him pondering a move away from Arsenal. Wenger took a chance on him, improved him and now the mug wants a pay day elsewhere. The simple fact is, Adebayor performs because of the Arsenal unit behind him. He would look distinctly average at any other club. For other players who have excelled under Wenger but have underperformed elsewhere look no further than Anelka, Overmars, Viera, Henry, Petit, Ljungberg and Pires (you can probably add Flamini to that list too).
from 6 months ago
Good points Adam. Nice to see us agreeing again .
from 6 months ago
Haha! Yeh, we agree on most things and it's certainly good to be on the same page again!
6 months ago
Actually I think only reason Arsenal is asking for 35m from AC.Milan is to recover the cost of losing Flamini to them for free.
Personally, we lost year because Adebayor refused to pass ball to Bendtner during the birmingham game in which we where 2 goals to the good and already suffering from the effect of Eduardo's injury. If Adebayor had passed the ball to bendtner, it was sure goal and we would have come out with 3 points. instead we drew the game and the whole game had such drastic effect on our team that the run that followed, well some commentators where saying was equivalent to relegation form.
The whole point being, Adebayor is definetly not worth 120K pounds per week salary. I admire Arsenal's stand in this regards.
Long Live Arsenal
from 6 months ago
Another good point mate...that could well explain such a high fee.
6 months ago
30 million is laughable sell him infact Barca can have him for 12 million and YaYa Toure. You put any striker up front of the team the way they were playing last season and they will get you 30 goals. And we have to remember 6 of those goals were against Derby in those match even we could have scored a few
from 6 months ago
Thanks Alan. yeah I'd have fancied getting on the score sheet.
6 months ago
He just needs to look at Henry, who left because 'Arsenal were not a big enough club for him'.
If he leaves,
1) there's no guarantee that he'll be successful. I mean just look at Henry and Viera.
2) it won't make that much of an impact on Arsenal anyway. The reason they're successful is because it's all about the style of play, the team's philosophy of the passing game which doesn't really depend on each player's individual efforts. Instead you team a lot of team goals. So I reckon that Arsenal will just have another 'end point player' to finish off their moves instead. No biggy.
from 6 months ago
I agree, it won't make much difference anyway.
6 months ago
25 Mil was turned down from Milan in order to sell him for 30 to Barca....No Pride, embarrasment or anything else involved, just Business pure and simple! While in Flamini's case, he failed to show his class before the final year of his contract- Tho it is more due to the slowing down of Gilberto that he got his chance this season. Fabregas has improved in almost immeasurable amounts this season, and his confidence will be sky-high entering the new season as a European Champion!
Adebayor: If Wenger can take this unknown striker who scores 1 goal/5 games in Monaco and mold him into a top premiership striker, think of What could be done with someone who is just THAT little bit more Clinical in front of goal (i.e Roque Santa Cruz). No doubt Ade came thru the year as one of the premierships most improved players, yet he still managed to miss an Unfunny amount of 'sitters', that just made you Cringe and grind your teeth at him. If he wants to go, sell him and move on. You'd find a needle in a haystack easier than a player who 'betters' his career post-arsenal
Everyone knows that this season at Arsenal was all about the Midfield- At Arsenal, a CF will generally ALWAYS receive a good supply of thru- Balls/crosses to use, and don't forget we have possibly the 2 Best Full-backs in Europe! It is for this reason I would rather we held onto Hleb than Adebayor. Its not exactly like we 'suffered' the loss of Henry, as was predicted :) Enter Samir Nasri for debt, and maybe to pressure Hleb into going for Goal more often!(His biggest weakness, I feel)
from 6 months ago
I know this is off on a tangent- but who are the two best full backs in Europe that Arsenal have?
Patrice Evra? No. Dani Alves? No. Zambrotta? No.
That comment made me laugh... Agree with everthing else you've said tho!
from 6 months ago
Yeah Jonathan, I was going to let that comment go but since you brought it up...Cole or Hutton to add to your list.
6 months ago
He seems to be confused about his future thanks to his agent who is only after the money from the sale. However ade is abit stupid if he cant make his own mind up and it is unfair to the arsenal fans to be put through this all over again Viera , Henry now ade but here are some simple facts as to why he should go.
1. He is not as good as Henry or Viera.
2. We will get 25 -35 million for him ( i know he aint worth it but milan and barcelona are money bags so cha ching)
3. we could buy santa cruz , martins and another player with that money.
4. and finaly next season he will flop because he had a luckey season in 07/08. if we wait we might only get 5-10 million for him next season.
Arsenal are ribuiling well after flamini left with the buys of Ramsey and soon Nasri will do well at arsenal. if the likes of ade and hleb are going then they need to hurry up so arsenal can replace them with better players.
from 6 months ago
Well said Ben. Thanks for the comments.
6 months ago
Wenger needs to show ambition ahead of this next year and selling his only goalscorer is hardly ambition. You wouldn't see United sell Tevez or Rooney and buy Berbatov and Eto, they would buy one to add to their squad. Arsenal are always replacing, however sucessful that is but if they want to win the EPL they need a quality striker next to Adebayor.
6 months ago
That's what I'm getting at Marc but in this instance I feel they'd be better with a new striker along side Van Persie.
6 months ago
I made my judgement based on statistics and circumstance: Name another Right-back that has played as well as Bacary Sagna in his first season in the premiership- He lost on average.....one tackle every 4.8 matches! Thus he was Voted Premier League's best right-back in the 2007-08 season.
Another Fact: Last season no full-back in the Premier League had a higher tackling success rate than Gael Clichy - 80.67 per cent. Clichy’s haul of five assists placed him second-best of all full-backs in the League; only Nicky Shorey of Reading weighed in with more, nine; Manchester United’s Patrice Evra, only registered one. He made 55 vital clearances during the campaign — a record that surpasses the efforts of Cole, Baines, Shorey and Evra
Sorry guys, just wanted to let u know that I wasn't just talkin crap :) Theres a reason Arsenal only lost 3 premiership games this season, and these full-backs are a large part of it!
from 6 months ago
Nothing was said about you taking crap but you said Europe too and we just have different opinions.
Thanks anyway.
6 months ago
hard to say whether arsenal are embarrassed to sell him. perhaps they are since they are finally willing to go into negotiations with milan. i think wenger was not prepared to sell since he didn't see any potential replacements and also, similar to what you said, the team was gelling well last year and finally had some togetherness, building another attacking partnership could take longer than what wenger wants..or have!
5 months ago
I couldn't agree more, Arsenal have messed up by holding out for 35 million, as a gooner I would have been very happy with anything over 20 million for a quite frankly over-rated player (much as I admire him for his exploits last season), now Arsenal have supposedly come out and said that they will accept offers of around 18 million...which i would have been pleased with a month ago, but the fact that we turned down 25 million (apparently) for him is very hard to accept
We tried to play the transfer market, and it looks like me might end up losing
5 months ago
Adebayor isn't the best player of the world . Every player have his quality so if he is lucky less do it.See
the example of Ronaldinho who was best player now he'll prepare for joining man city.Every want to profit of his lucky.
5 months ago
Now ac milan have got ronaldinio he wont leave anyway pity. but he better play well and score goals to make it up to arsenal he ows us big for showing disloyalty
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