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City-bound Emmanuel Adebayor with former team-mates Emmanuel Eboue and Kolo Toure |
Riches, but Ade short-changed us
Togo striker goes for big money at City after a season of misfiring for Arsenal
GIVE him the ball and he we will score, so the chorus went.
Truth was, Emmanuel Adebayor was often given the ball and more often than not he didn’t score.
He celebrated some cracking goals – like the overhead kick against Villareal and a thumper against Spurs a couple of seasons ago – but these moments of magnificence only concealed the cracks in his lethargic approach which became more and more frustrating to watch.
It must have been even more frustrating for his more imaginative team-mates, players like Andrey Arshavin and Cesc Fabregas, whose creativity was rarely rewarded with the goals.
The fans at Ashburton Grove have been accused of handing out rough, quick justice as players who they think are lacking in effort are greeted with jeers. Just ask Emmanuel Eboue, who left the field visibly shaken last season after feeling the full force of the home crowd following Arsenal’s nervy 1-0 over Wigan.
With Adebayor, they had a point.
There is nothing that fans who have shelled out their hard-earned folding stuff hate more than watching players who don’t seem willing to go the extra mile for their £80,000 a week. Adebayor left them feeling short-changed.
In his final days in an Arsenal shirt the Togo striker looked sulky and indignant, as if the team-mates, and not him, were to blame for another trophy-less season.
It would have been fairer for him to shoulder a large share of the blame for his own inefficiency. A spell of crippling goalless draws just after Christmas could have been broken with more imagination in attack.
And so a player who courted the giants of European football last summer did not back up his confident swagger with the killer performances Arsenal needed.
It was Adebayor’s wage demands, the nightclub visits after semi-final defeats and the flash car with the No 25 stitched into the upholstery which made him an easy target for the boo boys.
One time during his short Arsenal career, he joined other players visiting sick children at a local hospital one Christmas. It’s a lovely gesture. Shame then, that all the pictures of Adebayor sent to us show him meeting the kids with his iPod earphones still in. The little things make all the difference.
It’s only fine to be seen frittering away your wads in nightclubs like Ronaldo if you are playing as well as Ronaldo.
Manchester City’s riches may reinvigorate Adebayor beyond simply buying another personalised sports car, but if a manager with a wealth of experience and cunning like Arsene Wenger can’t summon the best in you, alarm bells should be ringing. In contrast, Mark Hughes, who still seems to be learning the ropes as a manager, will find reforming Adebayor tough work.
Sir Thierry excepted, hardly anybody has left Wenger’s Arsenal for better things. More money, yes, but rarely better things. The law of football ironies means Adebayor will score a goal or two against Arsenal this season, but City fans should welcome their new man with caution.
Few tears were wept last week when he cleared out his Arsenal locker for the final time. |
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