Reflections on Barnet & Adebayor
Add comment July 19th, 2009
I imagine this post will pick up a fair amount of traffic from Manchester City fans googling “Adebayor barnet” in an attempt to emulate their new striker’s elaborate hair-do. Alas, I cannot help you, other than to suggest cutting your braided hair with one of these bad boys.
So, Emmanuel Adebayor has signed for Manchester City. However, dropping in on Arsenal.com, you wouldn’t know it:
Either no-one has thought to tell the site editor, or .com is indulging in some sort of post-modern self-satirism on its own uselessness.
Whatever .com claims, he has gone, and now it’s time to move on. As is usally the case when a big player leaves Arsenal, it was Arsene’s call and whilst headlines have suggested he blames the fans for the breakdown in the player’s relationship with the club, when you look at the quotes it becomes clear he believes it stems from Adebayor’s conduct last summer.
Adebayor is a better player than Santa Cruz and I think he’ll do OK at City. The important thing is to use the funds they’ve given us to reinvest in the squad and make sure we stay ahead of them.
It won’t surprise you to learn that Arsene doesn’t sound eager to spend the money, bizarrely citing the availability of “Thomas Bendtner” as a reason to not increase our striking options. It’s interesting: in several interviews of late Arsene has failed to mention Carlos Vela as a striking option. Is that because he sees his future on the wing, or is the Mexican going to get sent out on loan to pick up some much-needed experience?
Arsene did admit an interest in Marouane Chamakh, and with the player set to be offered a new deal by Bordeaux that story could come to a head next week. I do wonder, though: Arsene declaring an interest in a player, un-prompted, is usually a sure sign we won’t buy them. Tomorrow I’ll be looking at other alternatives to replace Adebayor.
Yesterday our pre-season got underway with a 2-2 draw at Barnet, and you can see the highlights here: our first was a tap-in from Andrey Arshavin (who was puffed out after the first five minutes), and the second a sumptous curler from Nacer Barazite. I would get all excited about Barazite, but this is the third year running he’s scored a good goal in this fixture only to fail to make an impact in the coming season.
The real highlight was the return or Tomas Rosicky, who was skipper and came through some heavy challenges unscathed in his 45-minute comeback. It must have been a great feeling for him, and his every touch was met with cheers. Hopefully he can build on this throughout pre-season and be, as Arsene would no doubt say, like a new signing.
Thomas Vermaelen made his debut looked like a player who enjoyed a physical challenge, whilst both Philippe Senderos and Armand Traore are absent: the pair look likely to leave, though whether that’s permanently or on loan remains to be seen.
So, come back tomorrow for notes on who might replace Adebayor – if anyone…
