Emmanuel Adebayor

[Villa in Denmark]

Brilliant player when he was at Arsenal, but only 2 goals and huge personal and familiar problems in his last season at Spurs.
This is the reason why he's come to Villa, the elephants'cemetery.

Is there any chance you might comemnt abiut the big money signings we're making, or will it just be the cheaper ones and loans?

Dave, try and face the reality: we have arrived 17th with Benteke and Delph, should I be happy to see Benteke replaced by a player that in the last season has scored twice bringing only problems to his club?

Archie, are you familiar with the English phrase, "lies, damned lies and statistics."

The only way you can truly judge his performances (throughout his career) is to look a little into the background.  If you do that I see a pattern of a player who when he's teamed up with a manager who, for want of a better expression, "wants him there" he delivers some decent performance levels.  Unfortunately for him he's spent most of the last few years signing for a manager who gets sacked pretty after, but in the periods where he's had time with a manager that knows how to play him he can still deliver at not far of 1 in 2.

I did a bit of a dig a a few nights ago and came up with this.

[paul richard]

I have the memory of Adebayor scoring for Arsenal at the Holte End in, I think, the 07-08 season, as part of one of the best away performances of any team that I have ever seen at Villa Park in 40 yrs.  Arsenal were outstanding and Adebayor played his part.  If he can re-capture that spark and motivation then we could be pleasantly surprised.

[dave.woodhall]

Sorry but it really is a no brainer.  Quality striker who the manager gets on with, no fee, same wages ish as benteke.  It buys a year to see if Libor can be the man, or if a.n.other comes through.  Plus the African contingent will no doubt blend.

Absolutely.

Yup. And to paraphrase someone else on here - when you've just finished seventeenth you sure as shit ain't going to attract the second coming of Marco van Basten, no matter how much Premier League wages you can offer him.

[Clampy]

Dave, I have always taken you in high esteem, you are 1000 times more experienced than me about Villa, and obviously I  hope that you are right and I am wrong, but please do not take it as an offence if at the moment I have a different opinion.

It's not that you have a different opinion, but to call Adebayor and Crespo typical of our transfer policy and current status when they are minor parts is totall wrong. As has been said before, we don't need one player to replace Benteke's goals - if two of our new midfielders get seven or eight each we're halfway there.

Like I said yesterday, we need goals from other areas of the pitch. Spending the majority of the Benteke money just on one player to replace him would have been madness and we could have been worse off. I think Tim's gone the right way about it.

[Villa in Denmark]

Sorry but it really is a no brainer.  Quality striker who the manager gets on with, no fee, same wages ish as benteke.  It buys a year to see if Libor can be the man, or if a.n.other comes through.  Plus the African contingent will no doubt blend.

Now there's a sweeping generalisation.

That's like saying we could sign a squad based on German, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish and Norwegian players and there'll be no problems because they're all European.

[peter w]

Brilliant player when he was at Arsenal, but only 2 goals and huge personal and familiar problems in his last season at Spurs.
This is the reason why he's come to Villa, the elephants'cemetery.

Is there any chance you might comemnt abiut the big money signings we're making, or will it just be the cheaper ones and loans?

Dave, try and face the reality: we have arrived 17th with Benteke and Delph, should I be happy to see Benteke replaced by a player that in the last season has scored twice bringing only problems to his club?

Benteke is not the only player we are replacing, and while his like for like replacement might not be as good as he is, those elsewhere in the team certainly are upgrades. So please don't tell me to face some reality that only you can see.

Can't see your antagonism here Dave. Adebayor will have many people questioning the sense of the signing.  Liverpool and Tottenham have had 2 summers where the bought seemingly many upgrades on what they had, but didn't fit them into their team and they struggled relatively. With all the will in the world we don't know if what we have are upgrades as many of us hadn't heard of many of these players and we simply just don't know. We haven't got much room for manoeuvre in our finishing positions based on the past 5 seasons.

I'm very much in the wait and see school of thought on every signing we've made and how we'll fare. But I can certainly see and appreciate Archie's position.

[b23]

Dave, try and face the reality: we have arrived 17th with Benteke and Delph, should I be happy to see Benteke replaced by a player that in the last season has scored twice bringing only problems to his club?
[/quote]

I'm with you Archie.

[Stirchley Villain]

Dave, try and face the reality: we have arrived 17th with Benteke and Delph, should I be happy to see Benteke replaced by a player that in the last season has scored twice bringing only problems to his club?

I'm with you Archie.
[/quote]

Am I the only person who thinks Delph wasn't all that..?  And we've stayed in the Premier League since its inception largely without Benteke, so chill the fcuk out!

[peter w]

Sorry but it really is a no brainer.  Quality striker who the manager gets on with, no fee, same wages ish as benteke.  It buys a year to see if Libor can be the man, or if a.n.other comes through.  Plus the African contingent will no doubt blend.

Now there's a sweeping generalisation.

That's like saying we could sign a squad based on German, Dutch, Portuguese, Finnish and Norwegian players and there'll be no problems because they're all European.

Indeed it is. but there a modicum of reality to it. Northern europeans - Scandanavians, Dutch, Germans for example - tend to do well in the English leagues whilst the Latin Europeans tend to fare better in the French/Spanish/Italian leagues. I am well aware that there are now going to be stats disproving this.

[pauliewalnuts]

I have the memory of Adebayor scoring for Arsenal at the Holte End in, I think, the 07-08 season, as part of one of the best away performances of any team that I have ever seen at Villa Park in 40 yrs.  Arsenal were outstanding and Adebayor played his part.  If he can re-capture that spark and motivation then we could be pleasantly surprised.

I remember that match, and absolutely agree, it was one of the best away sides I've seen in decades.

Not only that, but I seem to recall Hleb putting in one of the finest individual performances I've seen in that time, for about an hour or so until Carew kicked him really hard and he had to go off. He was absolutely brilliant.

re Adebayor that night, though, worth remembering, it was 8 years ago.

[themossman]

I might be missing something but the chance to get in an oven ready premier league striker on a short term/low risk deal while we bed in new and recently injured players as longer term options seems like a pretty good approach.

[pauliewalnuts]

I might be missing something but the chance to get in an oven ready premier league striker on a short term/low risk deal while we bed in new and recently injured players as longer term options seems like a pretty good approach.

On a season long loan, I have absolutely no problem with it.

[dave.woodhall]

I might be missing something but the chance to get in an oven ready premier league striker on a short term/low risk deal while we bed in new and recently injured players as longer term options seems like a pretty good approach.

Absolutely, and anyone who disgarees should remember you're a boxer.

[Concrete John]

I might be missing something but the chance to get in an oven ready premier league striker on a short term/low risk deal while we bed in new and recently injured players as longer term options seems like a pretty good approach.

Whilst I agree, I'd slightly query the 'oven ready' bit as he hasn't played for a while and may need time to get match sharp.

But I'm still in favour of the move as a loan.

[Archie]

But I am not antagonist of Dave in any sense and I would be very disappointed if I had unintentionally  given this impression, or if I had been desrespectful when I invited to him to face the reality.
In this occasion we have different views about Adebayor, but generally speaking I have only to learn by him that is one of the most cultured and experienced Villa fan I have ever met.
I was delightful when Frank introduced me to him at Norwich, he is half Italian if my memories doesn't fail me, and he even understands some Italian words!