25 million in the bank and Adebayor out

Adebayor sealed his high profile switch to Man City today after completing a medical and agreeing personal terms. I haven't been able to read about what those terms are but they may be in the region of 150 to 170,000 pounds a week, which would make him among the if not the best paid player in England. I'm not sure what went on with his loyalty bonus but there was obviously something was worked out.

Adebayor has joined City's other signings, Gareth Barry, Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz, Arsenal's former youngster goalkeeper Stuart Taylor, and Nigel De Jong and Craig Bellamy from the January window.

Mark Hughes seems happy saying:

"Emmanuel has been one of the top forwards in the Premier League since he arrived from France and we are delighted he has agreed to come and join us..."

I'm not sure about that, I'd say he was a promising sub that went on to have one very good season. He went on to say:

"Along with the other signings we have made in the last two windows he will greatly enhance our ability to compete with the top sides ... He adds vital balance and power to our attack. He has everything a top forward needs. He is versatile, powerful, quick and agile on the ball."

Now, if Adebayor goes on to play the way he can, then I would imagine he would be the man to lead their line, but he'll be competing with Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Craig Bellamy, Benjani and Jo, unless they loan him to Everton again, which they may have done already. He's capable of being the best of all of them and I think they're counting on him to.

They've added players with quality to their squad, that's for sure. They're attack, as I've pointed out just above, is well staffed, although I don't particularly rate Benjani or Jo. Santa Cruz is alright but nothing like a world class striker and Craig Bellamy is a crazy idiot whose football has never justified his behavior. He also looks like a troll. But Tevez and Adebayor could potentially form a deadly pair. Flanking these guys will be Robinho and Sean Wright Phillips, who on their day can be awesome, although they won't be getting back to defend too often. In the middle they've got Vincent Kompany, a player I like very much and Stephen Ireland a player I love to watch. He's a lunatic but what a terrific player he was for them last season, box to box, scoring goals and making tackles. Playing fantastic passes and consistently delivering performances. They have Elano, De Jong and Petrov in the mix as well. They've got a good keeper in Given and a fantastic keeper in the making with Joe Hart whose been loaned to one of the promoted teams I think. At the back they don't look bad with Micah Richards, Waybe Bridge and Richard Dunne. They've been in for John Terry a few times and Everton turned down an offer for Jolean Lescott. I doubt they'll land either of those and don't think they're still looking at King Kolo.

Is that a team that can challenge for honors? I don't know, I don't think so but there's still plenty of time for them to spend more money. They put us to the sword last year at Eastlands without any of those new guys.

l'Boss doesn't seem to think they'll be challenging or he surely wouldn't have stepped aside so easily. Here's what he had to say:

"We'll miss him, but of course we want to focus on the players that are with us at the moment. We want to wish him well and thank him for everything he has done for the club. I wish him well, I am sure he will give something special to Man City."

I didn't watch him say any of this but I'm sure he handled himself expertly, as usual, and hid the fact that he's probably happy with his latest piece of business. Adebayor scored 62 goals in 142 games, which gave him the best scoring record of any Arsenal player before this afternoon. He cost 5 million dollars and we're selling him on for 41. That's a cool 36million dollar profit, plus plenty of goals, although no trophies.

Adebayor had this to say:

"It made me feel really welcome and special and I can't wait to play for City's fans and show them what I can do ... I was born to play football and that is what I want to do. I have come here to make history for this club and those supporters ... It is what the chairman and the manager told me that they want too and I can't wait to get started."

Yeah, well, go fuck yourself. Born to play football, please. If you were born to play football you wouldn't have caused a dressing room riot and lead a strike against your national team in the middle of the world cup over wages. You wouldn't have held yourself hostage last summer in order to get a new, more lucrative contract. You wouldn't have left a team that traditionally plays the most attractive football in Europe, a team that has played in the champions league for the last decade and beyond for a team that didn't even get into the Europa League, which is the new hipper (stupider) version of the UEFA Cup. Adebayor can fuck himself. He made progress, had a very good season after Henry left, stopped trying in his next season after extorting 80,000 pounds a week from the club and has now taken further advantage of his form two seasons ago to make some more money. He's gone for the money and he's done it in the worst way. Good night and fuck off.

What we need to use our new money on is a discussion for another day.

There is some more news, our boys drew 2 all with Barnet and Tomas Rosicky played 45 minutes and apparently combined well with Arshavin! YEAH BABY! More on that tomorrow.