Article by Chris MecoyHello again, Spurs fans,
After reading fellow e-spurs writer Paul Glanfield's excellent article entitled 'Defoe-nitely Maybe', it got me thinking about another one of our strikers. I'm afraid my pun for the title isn't quite as good as Paul's, but hey-ho, let's push on. It seems that among the Facebook and Twitter communities recently, a few of us are starting to enquire about whether or not Emmanuel Adebayor can be brought back into the first team fold and do a job for us, so I thought I'd take the time to try and discuss the pros and cons of such a move.
Now I know many of you, maybe even most of you, don't want to see Ade anywhere near the first team, but I feel that is based only on the shoddy performances his equally shoddy attitude dictates. Not wanting to see him play for us again based on bad performances seems like a pretty fair assessment to me, so I'm not digging at you, fellow Yids and Yidettes, but what if, just maybe, the good Adebayor was to show his face, or more to the point, his boots, again?
Emmanuel Adebayor is an excellent footballer. In my opinion that cannot be denied. This is a man who has earned millions playing for Tottenham, Arsenal, Manchester City and even Real Madrid in recent years. You can't do that if you're no good. Unless he taught Derren Brown everything he knows!
Somewhere inside this seemingly lazy man is one Hell of a footballer. His performance against us at the Bernabeu in the Champions League was extremely impressive, his goals for Arsenal and City were just as impressive, and, when on loan at White Hart Lane, the way he played against Liverpool and Newcastle, for example, were some of the best displays by a Spurs striker in recent memory.
"HE PLAYED WELL JUST TO GET A CONTRACT"
I know large quantities of you believe he only performed well for us on loan to get himself another large contract at a big club. You may have a point there, but he did perform a little bit at last years run in. In fact, to tell you the truth, at the end of last season, he really impressed me.
Now I'm not a stupid man. I know good football when I see it and the way Adebayor played against Everton and Chelsea in particular was almost back to his best.
STILL....ADEBAYOR. REALLY?
I am fully aware that I'm on a hiding to nothing from some fans by actually daring to praise Emmanuel Adebayor (Darryl Lucas and Cliff Mecoy, I'm looking at you!) but that's not necessarily the point I'm trying to get across here.
As I've said, this article is not about trying to persuade you that Manny should be starting for us. It's simply about weighing up the positives and negatives of having him starting for us, and to be honest I think I've been positive enough up to this point.
For the best part of the last year, he has been a lazy excuse of a man who has the almost overwhelming urge to go missing on the pitch, and aside from the occasional nut-down to bring the midfield into play, made us look like we were playing a 4-5-0 formation most of the time.
That is what is so frustrating. A man with so much ability has the attitude of a small boy who has been told "no ice cream until you finish your broccoli". He sulks and moans and turns us all against him. But on his day, he is so good!!
AAAAHHHHHH!!
Mr. Adebayor, if you want to get back into the fold again, it's all on you, but one thing I can guarantee is that Spurs fans all want one thing. What's that, you ask?
WE WANT THE GOOD ADE BACK!!
COME ON YOU SPURS!!
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I'm not clever enough to know why Ade's performances and attitude fell away last season but we need to get it into perspective. He's had far more better games than bad. Indeed when he plays with a smile on his face he can be devastating.
ReplyDeleteBut what he does do is offers something completely different up front. He can put the ball away but he can also make spaces for another striker. His physical strength can relieve a striker and make that elusive opportunity a reality. I think he would be a dream for Soldado.
Why he hasn't featured I'm not sure about but I have a feeling that if he hadn't picked up that latest training ground knock, we would have seen him in action.
I look forward to this.
If we have bad results against the Manc teams in the next two games playing our negative boring football I think AVB will feel the full force of the supporters anger and will be forced to recall Ade, towards the end of last season he started to look like the player we know he can be and recent quotes from Ade seem as though he is raring to play - why AVB hasn't given him playing time in our cup or European games is down to his stubbornness - and that was his downfall at Chelski
ReplyDeleteChris - Firstly thanks for the feedback, and your pun isn't that bad either, certainly enough to make me click through to read the article anyway ;-)
ReplyDeleteI've got to agree that regardless of whether or not it would be a good move, the Adebayor debate is surely one worth having in the first place. Assuming that AVB is right to leave him well out of the squad is madness. As you point out his track record is impressive enough with the clubs he has played for. His attitude is questionable - why did it take so long for us to sign him last summer - something was clearly wrong there because he was always coming but the deal dragged out long enough for us to miss him for key games. He was awful for much of last season, but he is undoubtedly talented and even in his awfulness his presence seemed to benefit the wider team at times. It's hard to accept that he's not part of affairs this season in any way shape or form when we need goals and this is a player who scored 17 PL goals in his debut season for us only 2 season ago - since Klinsmann in 94/95 only twice has that tally been topped (Defoe 09/10 and Bale last season). He's not the answer hence why we all said we needed a striker all summer, but he's got to be looked at as an option with Soldado still not showing his best form / us struggling to accomodate him in our system.
Why doesn't AVB tell us exactly what the Adebayor situation is ?
ReplyDelete