Adieu for Ade?
Good morning and good Monday Gooners. We’re going to start today off in a lsight state of disbelief as no more than three media sources (and none of them are the Sun or Goal.com) are reporting that serious talks have now begun between Man City and Arsenal for a £20 million transfer of everyone’s favourite striker Emmanuel Adebayor.
If you remember early this summer, Arsene basically said if Ade doesn’t want to stay – don’t let the door hit him in the ass on the way out. To me its evident from the benching the last two games of the season and Arsene’s comments this summer that Ade is no longer an option AW wants to count on.
A great 2007/2008 season saw the Togolese striker play amazingly (maybe even above his potential) and led to an increase wage after threats to leave for AC Milan. Well, 2008/2009 great things were expected from him and as we all know his performance was lackluster. He was hurt for a short time, his shots were more off target than on. And he continued to insinuate that he would leave if tempted.
Considering the arrival of Arshavin, the reemergence of Eduardo (hopefully, fingers crossed) and an opportunity for Vela, Ade seems to be the odd man out. This is not to diminish his size in the box- he is tall and does head the bell very well, probably the best on the squad. And there are some times when he looks absolutely brilliant. But more times than not he seemed to hold on the ball too long, took shots he had no business taking and just seemed to mostly play uninspired football.
And maybe all us punters have Arsene wrong (as of late) and he does see how bad Ade is and how much he seems to be a nuisance andlacks the skill to be wearing the red and white. Or maybe there are things going on in the locker room and on the training pitch that has just led AW believe he could live without the striker.
It remains to be seen. But £20 million can go a long way to shoring up some needs we really haven’t answered this summer. Defencive midfield anyone? It seems we are going to miss out on Melo. Juventus seem set to announce the signing of the Fiorentina midfielder this week which still leaves us holding the bag in that dance and still leaves us without a holding midfielder. So if Ade is sold (and maybe the funds are why we are considering it) I would hopefully expect to see a big purchase come out if it.
But Citeh? Does AW think Ade is that bad that sending him to a EPL foe doesn’t matter? Somone will need to explain that to me.
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