Be Honest – You’ll Miss Adebayor Really

Written by Barry Vinnicombe

So Adebayor has signed for Real Madrid until the end of the season… Hands up if you saw that one coming? The possibility of a deal had already been doing the rounds at the beginning of the season, but with Adebayor rapidly falling down the pecking order at Eastlands and the likes of Villa and Fulham sniffing around, only a fortune-teller would have predicted Adebayor’s move to the Glacticos in this transfer window.

Its a strange one, and I’m kind of sad to see a player who has been a mainstay in the Premier league for the last half-decade shipped off to Spain with little fuss. Adebayor has always been good entertainment value. Petulant, brassy, greedy and sometimes plain stupid, Adebayor has nonetheless been one of the most entertaining performers on the field. A gangly looking goal-scoring machine who drew obvious physical comparisons to ex-Arsenal legend Kanu, but was arguably twice the player.

At Arsenal he quickly established himself as a mainstay of the squad forming an enviable strike partnership with Van Persie. However, the bottomless cash pit of Man City came calling in 2009 and Adebayor began the next chapter of his Premier league career. Phenomenal in the first half of the season, Adebayor was a free-scorer, seemingly finding the net whenever the ball was at his feet, but as Mark Hughes’ career at Eastlands stalled, as did Adebayor’s, and he slipped to the fringes of the team with the arrival of Mancini.

We discover that he has become one of the envied Galacticos…

So how and why has Adebayor ended up at the sunny shores of Madrid? The primary reason is due to the injury of Argentinian striker Gonzalo Higuain. Without him they lack a significant goal threat. Benzema has yet to win over the Bernabeu faithful and continues to blow hot and cold. Ronaldo has recently been asked to play more centrally due to Higuain’s injury, effectively playing as an out-and-out striker but this has negated his significant threat from the wings and it is clear that Real need someone to pick up the slack up-front to free Ronaldo.

Enter Adebayor…. The Togo international was not even Mourinho’s first choice to fill Higuain’s shoes. That accolade went to their former employee Ruud Van Nistelrooy, currently of Hamburg. The Germans refused to sanction such a deal despite Real’s efforts and they turned their attentions to the City striker instead. The deal runs until the end of the season with Real stumping up the Togo internationals wages; a cool £160,000 making him the third highest earner at the club.

What will he bring to the club? He should bring a predatory instinct that Benzema seems to lack at present. He has bags of pace and is exceptional in one-on-one situations. He can also score from outside the box and has the cockiness to have a go from the most ridiculous of positions. He hasn’t played in a while which could hamper his impression on the club and Real’s fickle fans. We wait with baited breath to see whether he has one of his obligatory fracas with a team-mate. Real is filled to the brim with other strong-minded individuals and it will be interesting to see how Mourniho curtails Adebayor’s hunger to be top-dog.

Real have the option to buy at the end of the season, but this relies not only on Adebayor’s performances, but also his commitment to the club at a pivotal time in the season where he could potentially become Real’s top-dog.

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