ARSENE WENGER considers Emmanuel Adebayor to be the player who has shown the biggest improvement during his reign at Arsenal but the manager insists he has no regrets at sanctioning the Togo forward’s €28.5 million sale to Manchester City this summer.
Adebayor confronts former team-mates at Eastlands today having been the leading light among City’s startling array of stellar summer signings, with three goals in his three Premier League appearances to date. Wenger admitted his former player “is on fire, and we have to put out that fire”, though there is no lingering disappointment that the forward’s three-and-a-half-year spell at the Emirates, which ended with his relationship with Arsenal’s fans fractured, was cut short.
“He was not playing at Monaco when I bought him [in January 2006] and, in a short space of time, he was maybe my most improved player here,” Wenger said. “We are very happy with how he did for us. It shows you that, when players come here, they don’t waste their time. They develop well. That is the most important thing at the end of the day – that they develop and have a good career.
“But I think both clubs got a good deal in the summer. City got a great striker and we got a reasonable price. We had some younger players who can now get an opportunity. It’s not always as simple as considering whether we should have kept Ade or not. We had to take into account whether we would lose the players who are behind him – Eduardo, Nicklas Bendtner, Carlos Vela – because, if they were not playing, they would want to go.”
Adebayor has confessed he feels “loved again” having been abused by Arsenal supporters during the latter days of his spell at the club.
“I’m not sure he’s bitter, but I think he’s upset,” said the City manager, Mark Hughes. “It’s certainly something that has affected him quite deeply. He has no problem with Arsenal football club itself because he sees it as a huge part of his football life and how he developed as a player but you just sense, and he’s said it himself, he can’t quite understand why the Arsenal fans turned against him.
“Maybe that’s why we’re getting the benefit of how he’s playing and his demeanour at the moment because City fans absolutely love him. They see what he gives the team. They’ve never seen a player like Adebayor in a blue shirt, I would suggest.
He’s one of those players that, on his day, has the ability to be one of the best forwards in world football.”
Wenger has addressed the “Sit down you paedophile” chants to which he was subjected during last month’s defeat at Manchester United. “It is created by rumours at the start and then people bite, but what can you do about stupidity?” he said. “I need my energy for intelligence.”
