Not Bad, + Is Adebayor Gone?

By: Martin | May 17th, 2009

Well, first things first. A very sincere congratulations to Manchester United on another league title. It’s hard to argue that they didn’t deserve it or that they weren’t the best team over the course of the year.

However, they definitely weren’t the best team yesterday. We were. Yes, I know United were definitely playing back and trying to prevent us from scoring, which they did. And we didn’t even win, so it’s hard to view this as too much of a positive. But facts are facts, and the fact is that we went into Old Trafford and got a draw, which is always a good result. And, coming off of several crushing defeats in the span of a couple of weeks and with nothing to play for, we came out and outplayed the domestic and European champions. That kind of fight-back shows a lot of character, and should give this young team the confidence that they can play with any team, anywhere.

Also, I think one of the quietest stories of this season is this team is actually starting to grow a little bit of a backbone, which is something we’ve lacked in past seasons. No one will confuse us for Stoke any time soon, but we’ve shown the ability to get a little chippy when we need to. And this was on display last night. You’ll recall that after the Champions League semifinal, Patrice Evra gave an interview where he called Arsenal “babies” and said that they were “taught a lesson” by Manchester United. He’s clearly a graduate of Sir Alex Ferguson’s School of Class and Charm.

But I was happy to see us show him what “babies” were capable of yesterday, as he basically got kicked all over the pitch. When he got the ball, more often than not he got taken out. And it wasn’t the “babies” rolling around on the ground and crying to the referees. The referee kept a pretty good lid on the situation and clearly came into the match keeping a close eye on Evra. Cesc and Nasri were both given yellow cards for hard fouls on Evra, and nothing more came of it.

I generally don’t go for the “hard man”/physical stuff. I hate teams like Stoke and think they’re bad for the game, and I hate the mentality, widely accepted in England, that there’s merit in someone with no talent or skill going out there and bullying their way to a victory or draw. But sometimes you’ve got to man up and get a little physical. When Joey Barton first came back and immediately jumped into a dirty foul against Nasri then had the gall to wink at him, Samir Nasri was absolutely right to immediately trip him and give him a face full of the Emirates beautiful, well-groomed pitch. And when some front-running d-bag can’t be graceful in victory and goes and shoots his mouth off to the press and calls an entire team “babies,” (”babies that beat Manchester United without any fit strikers earlier in the year…) I have no problem with us coming out and putting him on his ass a couple of times. Maybe next time he’ll keep his mouth shut.

But the element of chippiness and physicality is really something we’ve been missing, and it’s hopefully something that’s making its return to the club. Because as much as I love Arsenal for its trademark beautiful brand of football, the fact is that we’ve never won without having physicality in the team. Vieira was an absolute hoss in midfield, and when someone like Roy Keane decided to run his mouth off in the tunnel or play dirty on the pitch, he was there to get in Keano’s face. Hard to see Denilson or Diaby doing the same. And there were guys like Sol Campbell, Martin Keown, and Tony Adams on Wenger’s title-winning teams. So I, for one, am happy to see guys like Cesc and Samir stand up for themselves and their club, and I love it when Song is on his game terrorizing anyone on the opposition with the temerity to try to bring the ball into his midfield. Here’s hoping this continues into next year, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt for Wenger to go out and get a center back with some physicality as well.

The other big news was that Adebayor was left out of the squad, ostensibly with a groin problem. But it’s worth noting that it did come one day after giving an interview criticizing Arsenal fans for not being more supportive of him this year. Arseblog has a great analysis of this situation, but it really comes down to this–some people get it, and some people don’t. Cesc, with the way he acts towards the fans and his fellow players, both on the pitch and in media interviews, gets it. Whenever a story pops up about him going to Barcelona pops up, he immediately comes out and says it’s not true, that he’s happy at Arsenal and staying at Arsenal. Adebayor, on the other hand, spent months in the offseason trying to engineer a move to Milan or Barcelona, then when it fell through tried to blame it all on his agent, saying he himself never wanted to move or tried to work out a move. Well, you know what? Your agent works for you. If I had an agent who was saying things that were untrue or misrepresenting my intentions, I’d first tell him to knock it off; if that didn’t work, I’d fire my agent, it’s really that simple.

And then, of course, there was the incident where Adebayor kissed the badge on his shirt at a preseason match, and was rightly booed. In the middle of the most important stretch of games this club has had in some time, he came out and compared being courted by Milan to being courted by Beyonce, which I think shows volumes about his priorities and focus. And now he claims that the fans haven’t been supporting enough, and didn’t sing his song as much this year as last year? Well, you know what, Ade? Fans generally sing your song when you score goals, or at least look like you give a crap whether your team wins or loses. Last year you scored 29 goals. This year you scored 15. Do you want them to sing your song to glorify your half-hearted jogging around in a Champions League semifinal game against one of your biggest rivals?

The bottom line is this–I think Adebayor’s ego has gotten too big, and while you can certainly have an ego (it didn’t stop us from loving Henry), when you’re so completely self-centered that you have little regard for the club, its fans, or your teammates, it’s just not feasible for you to stay at Arsenal. We probably won’t get the fee we could have gotten for him last year, but you don’t think Manchester City would pony up £20-£25 million for him? And while it’s not Milan or Barcelona, Adebayor is clearly someone who cares a lot about money–if Manchester City were to give him £100-£120 thousand pounds a week, does anyone think he wouldn’t take that and a chance to pair up with Robinho? If we could get that, I say we jump at the chance–Adebayor’s a talented player who is world-class when he wants to be, but all too often, he can’t be bothered. I’d rather get a return on him and spend the money on a player who wants to play for Arsenal and help us win trophies.

But there’s plenty of time for all the silly summer transfer speculation in the months to come. Today let’s just enjoy the small measure of redemption we enjoyed by outplaying Manchester United on their own pitch yesterday. Here’s hoping we can build on this for next season.