ARSENE WENGER has opened the door to Emmanuel Adebayor leaving Arsenal this summer by stating he would have no problem in selling a player to Chelsea or any other big four rival.
Adebayor, who has endured a turbulent season after he came, in Wenger’s words, “close to leaving the club” last summer, has emerged as a possible target for Chelsea. Roman Abramovich, Chelsea’s owner, admires the Togo striker and so does Carlo Ancelotti, the Milan manager, whom Chelsea hope to install as Guus Hiddink’s successor.
Ancelotti thought he had a deal to take Adebayor to San Siro last summer only for Silvio Berlusconi, the Milan owner, to step in at the last moment and insist the club sign Ronaldinho from Barcelona. Wenger said Adebayor remained a part of his plans but, while he has argued passionately players such as Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie are going nowhere, his stance over Adebayor sounded less convincing.
“I don’t want to go especially into any individual assessment of who we want to keep and who not, and normally Adebayor is part of our plans for the future,” he said. “If I feel a player should go, or could go, why not sell him to one of the other top four?”
It was put to Wenger the top clubs rarely sold to their domestic rivals. “Yes, of course, it’s unusual,” he said. “But we sold [Ashley] Cole to Chelsea and we bought [William] Gallas [from Stamford Bridge] so you can never say I never do it.”
Adebayor sent out mixed messages at the end of last season when, after scoring 30 goals in all competitions, he became one of the hottest properties on the market. He said he would be “delighted” to play for Barcelona who, together with Milan, led the chase for his signature but he also stressed he was “very happy” at Arsenal and would return to them for pre-season training. When he did and duly turned out for the Premier League club, he felt the wrath of supporters.
“I believe he was disturbed at the start by a little bit of bad feelings from the fans because he was close to leaving the club and it unsettled him a little bit,” said Wenger as he assessed Adebayor’s contribution this season, in which he has scored 16 goals. “And after, he had a big [hamstring] injury [that kept him out for two months from early February]. He looks now in training very, very sharp and back to his best.”
Wenger was asked whether he wished he had sold Adebayor last summer, when his value was at its peak. He had opted to keep Thierry Henry for one more season in the summer of 2006 and the France international went on to have an indifferent campaign before he completed his long-mooted move to Barcelona.
“In this path, you are always in a very delicate position for two reasons,” Wenger replied. “First, I cannot tell you all the truth, what happened behind the scenes and secondly, when you want to keep the players, you keep the players. You do not really look at how much money you get. On the other hand, people say you do not want to spend and when you have the good player, you sell him. We are in a position where we have . . . when I look in training today, the quality of our offensive sector is very strong.”
Adebayor is aware Ancelotti covets him, just as he would acknowledge the difficulties of a move across London to Chelsea. A parting of the ways with Arsenal, however, seems likely, although Wenger, who is tracking the Blackburn Rovers striker Roque Santa Cruz, sounded a note of caution. “No matter how much money you have . . . you will see Manchester City now, for example, will be in the market . . . the number of players available who make a difference is not as big as people imagine,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ancelotti will meet Berlusconi on Sunday with Chelsea quietly confident their candidate to replace Hiddink as manager this summer will not be persuaded to remain at San Siro by the Italian prime minister.
Berlusconi was quoted in the newspaper La Repubblicathis week criticising the coach for his tactics and team selection. The club president denied having made the comments yesterday but intends to explain himself to his manager face to face, by which time the club may have secured a return to the Champions League with victory at Udinese tomorrow.
Guardian Service
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