Adebayor Move on Hold?

By: Martin | July 16th, 2009

Reports this morning are that Adebayor’s move to Manchester City, which yesterday seemed to be virtually a done deal, is now on hold. Apparently Adebayor is worried about how the move might be perceived in Africa, where Arsenal is a very popular club and Manchester City is virtually unknown. He’s worried his fellow Africans, with whom he is very well-liked, will think it means he doesn’t care about winning and only cares about money. I can’t imagine why they would ever think such a thing…

Frankly, though, at this point I think Adebayor basically has to go. Reports also indicate that his agent shopped him around to basically every big club in Europe this summer, and Manchester City was the only club willing to plop down a lot of money for the Togonator. Given that this makes two summers in a row that Adebayor has actively tried to get out of North London, I think I can probably speak for most Arsenal fans when I say we don’t want him back next season. If he does come back, he’ll be coming back into a situation where he’s alienated the supporters, his teammates, and his manager. It would be a bad situation for everyone involved.

It would be much better for him to move to a club where he’s welcome, where the fans are excited to have him and will embrace him, and he can make a fresh start. And as far as people in Africa being unhappy, I have a couple of thoughts:

1. He can utter the same meaningless platitudes everyone else who’s joining Manchester City is offering: “exciting opportunity,” “club on the upswing,” “part of something great,” etc., etc.

2. Frankly, I’ve never understood why people get so upset when an athlete leaves for “greener” pastures anyway. Fans hold athletes to a much higher standard than they hold themselves. For example, I work for a good law firm–I work with good people and we win a lot of cases. If a firm across town, which had worse attorneys and won fewer cases, offered me twice as much money to come do the same job I do now for them, I wouldn’t even have to think twice before I took the offer. And if you claim you’re any different, you’re lying.

3. I’m not exactly an expert in geopolitics, but I’m pretty sure Africa has more important things to worry about, what with the AIDS epidemic, civil war, genocide, poverty, and starvation, than where Emmanuel Adebayor is kicking a football. In fact, if Adebayor was that worried about Africa, he’d use some of that money to do some charitable work and help the people in his native Togo. Here in the states, several basketball players, notably Manute Bol and Dikembe Mutombo, have used their money to do wonderful work in Africa.

At any rate, I think a moment’s reflection will make him realize that taking a PR hit in Africa isn’t that big of a stumbling block. And even if Africans turn on him, he can go back to his giant marble home and cry himself to sleep on his money-stuffed pillow. Besides, he’ll have plenty of time to deal with any existential identity crisis next year with all the free time he has while he’s not playing in Europe.

Bottom line is that he’s basically burned the bridge back to the Emirates, and I think the only path left available to him at this point is north to Manchester. But common sense has never been his strong suit, so we’ll see.

In other news, Serbian starlet Veljko Batrović appears poised to sign for Arsenal. We apparently beat out AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympiakos, and Marseille for the young Serbian striker. I’ll stop talking about this, because I don’t want to have to type his name again.

Finally, BARNET PREVIEW COMING TOMORROW!!! Actual football to write about! And, most importantly, less than a month until opening day against Everton…