By Chris Wright
Bear with me on this one. Chelsea are apparently readying a huge £25 million summer bid for Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor. Sounds a little improbable at first doesn’t it?
However, the more you think about it, the more it starts to make sense. There are a few factors that, when totted up, seem to add a bit of weight to the rumour.
Chelsea could do with some fresh blood up top as Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba aren’t getting any younger (both are the wrong side of 30), Salomon Kalou is hit and miss (emphasis on the miss) and Daniel Sturridge is inexperienced and, to be brutally honest, doesn’t really look like developing into the superstar he was touted to become.
Adebayor almost joined Chelsea during the summer, but moved to Man City as they were the only club capable of matching Arsenal’s asking price and the Togolese striker’s wage demands, and Carlo Ancelotti is a known admirer of Adebayor as the current Chelsea boss tried to sign Adebayor whilst still at the helm of AC Milan.
Looking at the prospective deal from City’s perspective it also seems fairly logical. Adebayor, who has been somewhat overshadowed by fellow new arrival Carlos Tevez, is apparently unhappy with life at City – and we all know what he’s like when he’s unhappy don’t we?
He is said to be one of the growing list of squad members who are becoming increasingly disenfranchised with the way Roberto Mancini goes about his business at Eastlands, so maybe the Italian coach would be wise to ship him out before the Togolese striker starts throwing his weight around like he did during his final months at Arsenal.
Also, with City seemingly hell bent on signing Gonzalo Higuain (along with whichever other trinkets catch their eye from here-on in) in the summer, maybe they would be willing to let Adebayor move on – recouping a large proportion of their initial outlay on the target man.
Anyway, all I’m saying is that it makes sense. Whether the move will happen or not is another thing entirely.
Do you reckon Chelsea would be wise to pursue their interest? Or is Adebayor just more trouble than he’s worth?