Ian Herbert writes in The Independent:
Very similar claims are made by Mark Ogden in the Telegraph and Ian Ladyman in the Daily Mail. From nowhere, this now seems like the most probable next purchase for City.
They [MCFC] offered a five-year deal worth £130,000 a week to Adebayor, a player effectively put up for sale by Arsène Wenger, for whom his career prevarications have proved too much.
City were surprised by how receptive Arsenal were when they made their approach at the weekend, within 24 hours of failing in their attempt to sign Eto'o. Arsenal are believed to want £25m for the Togo international, a fee comfortably within City's range.
My main concern is this: where would he play? I can only see him lining up alongside Tévez in a front three that also included Robinho. But where would that leave Roque Santa Cruz? It would be terribly wasteful to spend £18m on a centre forward and then not even to play him. And quite unfair on Roque himself, who has spent a year hoping for this reunification with Mark Hughes. Until I am convinced that Adebayor is much better than Santa Cruz, I don't see much point in signing him.
But that's not to say I don't think he's a good player. And ultimately we should defer to Hughes on these issues.
5 comments:
Wasteful?! How quaint, and kind of cute to think so.
Don't forget Adebayor would miss a chunk of the season for the African Cup of Nations, should Togo qualify -- which seems rather likely. Plus there are the cup competitions. Plus Santa Cruz is injury-prone. Aside from Ibrahimovic, Adebayor is the striker I really wanted to see City sign this summer, as he'd be deadly playing in a system with Robinho and Tevez playing off him to the left and right, respectively.
If you could guarantee that Robinho, Tevez and Adebayor never missed a game through injury, suspension or International duties then maybe the signing of Santa would have been wasteful. Not that you'd convince me Jack. Loss of form, horses for courses and the need to use quality substitutes to provide different problems, not to mention avoiding staleness through over exposure all means that 4 strikers are essential WITHOUT injury issues. Bozhinov is quality remember, Caicedo is young and promising; before the season is out we might be grateful for all of these. Yes, you're right, I didn't mention Benji :-)
Terrible buy. Arsenal would snap our hands off at £15m. He's been awful this season and discounting one freak season of 24 in 36 (league only) hasn't done much (and by that I mean its not like he was trying hard this season and it just didn't come off). Doesn't have the work ethic that most of Hughes' buys have either. Arsenal supporters can't wait to see the back of him, and I don't blame them.
Will this help marketing campaigns in Africa though? South America looking good, as is Europe. Perhaps we need more Russians.
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