Man City Bid for Adebayor reported
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
The mornings press is dominated by news that we have bid for Emmanuele Adebayor, with The Independent, Telegraph and Mail all reporting bids of between £20-£25 million for the Arsenal forward.
It does appear that Arsenal would be in selling mood, and Adebayor will in all likelihood be keen - seeing his wages likely doubled less than a year after his previous 50% hike in salary. I knew Adebayor wasn't the most universally liked player at Arsenal, but the weight of opinion against him has been surprising since the story broke and I don't think it is a case of sour grapes after the event like we saw when Gareth Barry moved from Aston Villa. There really does appear to be a genuine dislike for Adebayor amongst Arsenal fans.
A player with character issues doesn't seem to be the most obvious choice for Mark Hughes, and given the anti-Anelka feeling that developed in certain sections of the City crowd, he may not be set to become a terrace idol anytime soon. Hughes, if nothing else though, is a combative type, and I'm sure would back himself to manager players deemed to be troublemakers.
I don't have a problem with the signing in terms of fitting him into the team either. My concern with Adebayor is that he does not seem a natural goalscorer, but his record is a decent one and if nothing else, we would have plenty of variety and options. Although there is no European competition this season, we really do need to carry four top forwards, and given that our options in attack for the large part last season were a choice of Robinho plus one of Evans, Caicedo, Sturridge or a returning Bojinov, it is clear we needed to seriously upgrade.