Adebayor: ….. To Be Loved

In the first 8 games of the season Tottenham Hotspur where winning all sorts of plaudits for their attacking play, with the focus coming on the emergence of Andros Townsend as well as the additions in the summer of Eriksen, Chadli, Lamela & Soldado. In amongst this time of great form their was a man forgotten, Emmanuel Adebayor. Banished to train with the youth team by then manager Andre Villas-Boas after returning late from his own brothers funeral and seemingly looking on his way out of the door.

Then Villas-Boas was discarded by Spurs after their form took a dip and AVBs negative tactics proved to much for the very loyal White Hart Lane crowd to stomach, and under rookie manager Tim Sherwood the man from Togo seems to have found a new lease of life.

Adebayor has always been a mercurial talent, from his tumultuous time at Arsenal where too often he showed glimpses of a player of special talent. To his largely forgettable time at Manchester City, although he will forever be a legend in my eyes for his pitch long run to celebrate his goal in front of the Arsenal fans. Then via Real Madrid he ended up at Spurs. Once again his first season showed how good much of a poacher the man is netting 18 goals and ending as their top scorer. Last season however Adebayor was everything his critics lambast him for: wasteful, lazy and seemingly at times disinterested and he only returned 5 goals, a figure he has already gone past this term.

So where exactly does Adebayor fit in in the criteria for a top striker? Well the answer to this lies in the fact which Adebayor turns up. On his day he has the perfect balance of speed and strength that all strikers need (a brilliant example of this was his goal against Everton a few weeks ago), he can also hold up the play well for midfielders coming from attacking roles. He posses a good eye for finding the net and has one of the hardest shots in the league. These are all his good traits so what about his bad ones? Well as we have already said he can often float through games seemingly disinterested, he is a forward so can’t tackle at all (see his red card in the North London Derby last season),he will certainly not track 40/50 yards with a player although as we mentioned he can’t tackle so maybe that’s a good thing and finally he has a one season syndrome about him, whereby he plays out of his skin for a year and then doesn’t really get off the ground for the rest of his time at that club. It’s something that can be tracked through his career and Sherwood must be hoping it doesn’t happen anytime soon with just Adebayor and Roberto Soldado (who doesn’t look likely to score anytime soon) as their only recognised strikers after Defoe goes to Toronto he needs both scoring.

Ryan