EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR has asked for more time to mull over his proposed move from Arsenal to Manchester City, a transfer he fears could lead to strong criticisms of his motives in his native Togo. The striker’s misgivings are such that City have been forced to delay plans for a medical while he considers their offer of a salary worth in excess of €174,000 a week.
Arsenal have accepted City’s €29 million bid and Adebayor has given his prospective new employers sufficient encouragement to organise a work-permit hearing yesterday at which the striker received permission to change employers. Adebayor, however, has concerns about being perceived as money-driven if he should leave a club that is hugely popular in Africa and go to one that has a much lower standing.
Although the opportunity to double his salary has an obvious appeal, Adebayor’s preference was a move to Italy and he has asked City if they will allow him a few days to talk to his family and representatives before going through with a move that he believes could open him to criticism.
The last year or so has been a difficult period for the 25-year-old, and he is acutely aware of how the public perception of him has changed for the worse.
City have already signed Carlos Tevez, Roque Santa Cruz and Gareth Barry, but plans for Adebayor to join the squad as they left for a pre-season tour of South Africa last night have had to be shelved, and it is a measure of the player’s uncertainty that his medical has not yet been booked in – contrary to earlier reports that he had already taken it.
City remain hopeful that Adebayor will be able to join them during their 10 days in South Africa and agree a move that will take Mark Hughes’s spending through the €233 million mark since he was appointed as City’s manager 13 months ago.
The Abu Dhabi United Group is also willing to pay more than €35 million to Chelsea for John Terry and another €23 million to Everton for Joleon Lescott, but Hughes was unapologetic last night in the face of Alex Ferguson’s criticisms about the way it has affected the transfer market.
“We’re just trying to do the best for our club,” Hughes said. “We have no view on what it is doing to the market for other clubs because we are concentrating on what is right for ourselves.”
Ferguson had talked of “stupid” fees and argued that none of the big transfer deals this summer represented “value” for the buying clubs, but Hughes regards Tevez’s signing for €30 million as a “bargain” compared to the €93 million that Manchester United received from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo and he highlighted the €20 million signing of Santa Cruz from Blackburn Rovers.
“We were quoted €29 million in January and we have got him for significantly less so I would suggest that’s good business,” he said.
It was put to Hughes that it was “hypocritical” of Ferguson to make such comments given the frequency with which United have broken transfer records over the years and he nodded in agreement. “That’s a good word,” he said.
Barry Ferguson’s Rangers career moved closer to an end when the Ibrox club yesterday accepted a bid from Birmingham City. Ferguson (31) will discuss terms with the Premier League club managed by his former Rangers and Scotland manager Alex McLeish.
It was reported that the bid is around €1.2 million although that has not been confirmed.
If terms are agreed, Ferguson will return to the top flight in England four-and-half years after a spell at Blackburn Rovers. And if the midfielder leaves Rangers, he will follow Brahim Hemdani, Christian Dailly and Graeme Smith out the Ibrox door this summer.
Ferguson’s Ibrox career was latterly shrouded in controversy. He was fined and stripped of the Rangers captaincy last season following a breach of discipline while on Scotland duty in April following a World Cup qualifying defeat by Holland in Amsterdam. The late night drinking incident at a Loch Lomond Hotel also led to an end to his international career.
