Is Buying Adebayor Really A Good Idea?

By: Robert Reed | July 8th, 2012

adebayor_1374011a I don’t know about everyone else, and only the future will tell whether I am wise in my opinion, but I am glad Redknapp has gone. We had some great times under Harry and I have some terrific memories, but I just cannot forgive the humiliation heaped on us due to the manner in which the team threw away our lead over Arsenal last season. It happened on his watch and he has to take responsibility. I had also been concerned for some time that we were not going to progress to the very echelons of English football while hampered by his inability to implement any new system when it was needed.

Harry did have his qualities of course, and above all else his main talent was just being Harry. Lovable, affable old Harry; everybody’s mate. Whomever the player, whatever their history, I was confident that if Harry rated them there would not be any major problems. In that respect I had no worries who we signed and it opened us up to the possibility of signing players who are great talents but who we could get on the cheap due to their suspect temperaments. Players like Emmanuel Adebayor.

I’m guessing everyone can see where I am going with this. If we do complete the rumoured signing of Adebayor from City; how long will it be before he and Andre Villas Boas have a falling out? And what effect will that have on our season?

I am very pleased with AVB’s signing and feel he will be a breath of fresh air with his new outlook, modern thinking and ideas. It has to be said though that, on past evidence, he can be somewhat confrontational. Can anyone really see these two personalities getting on long term? I can see it ending in meltdown within eighteen months. Ade even reportedly had a big training ground bust up with Redknapp near the end of the season, one which was played down by the manager. Harry is pretty long in the tooth and able to take such things in his stride to keep the peace; can the same be said of Villas Boas?

I simply cannot see there not being major problems with this signing. This is a 27 year old, supposedly top class player and yet we are the only team going in for him at a reported £5 million; should that not be setting alarm bells ringing? It is a major risk in my opinion and I think we should weigh up whether the potential gain is worth that risk.

Adebayor has a history of having a honeymoon period at every club he has signed for. He is usually brilliant at first, then starts to tail off in his performances before falling out with people and leaving in acrimonious circumstances. That said, how brilliant was he for us last season anyway?

What cannot be denied is that he mobilised our front line. His movement, awareness and link up play were excellent and he gave us a new attacking dimension; no question. He is strong, deceptively fast and he can hold the ball up well. All good. The problem for me though is that he is the lone striker type and as such has to above all be a serious goal threat. I don’t think that he was.

Yes, his goals to games ratio wasn’t bad, but the actual games scored in to games played ratio was poor. If a player scores five goals in a game then doesn’t score for the next nine then the stats say he is scoring one in two, but if the team lost those nine games by one goal then that striker isn’t pulling his weight in the goal scoring department. Too many times we’d have a goalless draw or lose by a goal and Ade would have wasted a host of chances.

There is no doubt that we need strikers. We have Defoe on our books and that is it so ideally we need another three; two of real quality and one for the future perhaps. Really at least two of those need to be in the line leading mould and not of the second striker variety if we are going to play three up front as is expected and are to have some scope for rotation. Adebayor fits the bill and in spite of his slightly suspect scoring habits would certainly be of adequate quality to do the job asked of him, but my point is that in my opinion the baggage he carries will weigh us all down in the end.

COYS!

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