Pay ME... or I quit
•Arsenal in crisis as Adebayor demands £80,000
By Sun News Publishing
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
 |
Emmanuel
Adebayor
Photo: Sun News Publishing |
| |
Emmanuel Adebayor has threatened to throw Arsenal into full-blown
crisis by following Mathieu Flamini and Alexander Hleb out
of the door, unless they make him into one of the Premier
League's top earners.
Arsene Wenger's best laid plans are in ruins after Flamini
and Hleb have opted to leave for different sides of the Milan
divide, and now the Gunners' top scorer from last season is
allegedly demanding £80,000 a week to stay at the club.
Flamini has joined Milan on a Bosman, while Helb is expected
to join Inter in the coming two weeks after turning Arsenal's
contract offer down.
Adebayor, 24, is currently on £35,000 a week from a
contract he signed last summer, but word is that he and his
agent are looking to exploit the club's desperation as well
as the fact that Barcelona and AC Milan have been hovering
over him for some time.
This would contradict recent quotes attributed to him, however,
in which he declared that he is staying at the Emirates and
eager to continue improving in the hopes of truly establishing
himself as one of the best strikers in the world.
Meanwhile, Adebayor has angrily slammed reports that he has
asked to leave the club after being denied a new bumper contract.
Several reports last Friday claimed the Togo international
was looking to quit the Emirates Stadium after being denied
an $156,000 per week new contract.
However, the 30-goal marksman insists nothing could be further
from the truth and that he is happy to stay with the Gunners.
Arsenal have already lost midfielder Mathieu Flamini on a
free transfer to AC Milan this week, while Alex Hleb continues
to be linked with a summer switch to Inter Milan.
“I am very happy here. Reports which suggest I have
threatened to quit are rubbish,” said Adebayor in a
statement. “I love the club and the fans.
“We have a great set of players here with a fantastic
team spirit. We have had a good season, but next year we want
to go one better by winning a trophy.”
These days just about every club are looking to work the Arsène
Wenger way. Spot them young, buy them cheap, pay them in washers,
win the league. What could possibly go wrong? Well, now they
know.
Given at least five years and a brilliant technical staff,
unearthing and nurturing fine talent, Wenger’s methods
might work at another club, up to a point. The point at which
the players start doing the numbers and, like those at Arsenal,
realise the going rate for a Champions League footballer.
Mathieu Flamini is the first, but he will not be the last.
Alexander Hleb intends to buy out his contract for a move
to Inter Milan despite Arsenal’s objections and, if
he goes, what price Cesc Fàbregas and Emmanuel Adebayor,
unless Wenger can quickly placate them with replacements that
demonstrate that there will be no loss of potential next season.
Take Adebayor. The striker insists that he is happy at Arsenal
and talks as if he sees his future there, but for how long?
At a leading club, certainly one who qualify for Europe’s
top competition each season as Arsenal do, the reward for
a striker scoring 30 goals is roughly treble Adebayor’s
£35,000 a week. It may be argued that his form in this
campaign has been a one-off, but suppose he does it again
next year. Will he still be happy earning roughly a third
of what Fernando Torres is paid by Liverpool?
We do not buy superstars, we make them, Wenger says, but his
way is about to be tested like never before, as is the cosy
logic that Champions League football can be attained without
breaking the bank.
What Wenger has pulled off these past 10 years is little short
of miraculous and by making it look so effortless, he has
given the impression that every club can do it.
Well, every club cannot and Wenger may not be able to for
much longer, either. Before each season, there are gloomy
predictions that this will be one in which Arsenal fall out
of the top four and year after year, Wenger confounds those
who doubt him, but like the forecasts that Wimbledon would
not be able to maintain top-flight status while selling every
good player, they had to break even, eventually the prophesiers
were proved right.
Timing was always Wenger’s forte. He knew when to ditch
a player and he knew a good deal. He did not want to lose
Nicolas Anelka, but the money paid by Real Madrid was astronomical.
Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira were dispatched at precisely
their moments of decline. The portent of this crisis was Ashley
Cole’s transfer to Chelsea. Everything that is happening
to Arsenal now was predicted by that event and its significance
was overlooked because Wenger struck a hard bargain for William
Gallas, while Cole took so long to settle at Stamford Bridge,
he was adequately replaced by Gaël Clichy.
Cole left over money and was reviled, but the same driving
force was at work in Flamini’s transfer to AC Milan
and is present in Hleb’s longing for Inter, just as
it will one day feature for Fàbregas and Adebayor.
There is a tariff for a world-class footballer and Arsenal
will not pay it. Hleb may be making a huge mistake and his
uniquely ambitious style of play may never be indulged so
lovingly by a manager again, but he is not moving to be in
a better working environment.
He wants to earn more and equates inflated wages with a greater
chance of success. Looking at this season’s Champions
League finalists, who could argue?
Is it still possible to succeed the Wenger way? Yes, in a
limited fashion. Wenger has taken it farther than anyone could
imagine because he began with the basis of George Graham’s
defence, and the way he built from there was little short
of genius. A manager with less wit would never have been able
to forge a Champions League team out of that philosophy and
even Wenger is finding it increasingly problematic.
“How you are going to keep them down on the farm, after
they’ve seen Paree?’ the song asks. If a Frenchman
no longer has the answer to that, who does?
|
