Debate: Will Adebayor haunt Arsenal this season?

Yes, City are buying trouble judging by his previous record, but Arsenal are also inviting it by trading one of their best players to a club who will make a serious attempt to evict them from the top four this season.

‘Adebayor is a great player and he’ll show that again at Manchester City,’ said Wenger. And if he is right, who has most to lose?

Arsenal are the most vulnerable of the elite clubs, that much is obvious. They have finished fourth in three of the last four seasons and, in May, ended 11 points adrift of third-placed Chelsea, having finished third, seven points in front of Liverpool, the previous year. They will have to pre-qualify for the Champions League again this season, as they have at the start of every campaign since 2005-06.

Wenger does not work with the same budget as his contemporaries and, sooner or later, he will fail to pull off his traditional magic act of staying competitive with a young squad. Meanwhile, City are throwing money at the problem in the hope that this is the year Arsenal slip.

So, if Adebayor had been sold to AC Milan or even Chelsea, it would have made sense; but to the club who are most capable of kicking a hole in Arsenal’s financial future? This is a big risk on Wenger’s part.

The Champions League funds have kept Arsenal ahead of the chasing pack. Without them, there would be serious repercussions, sporting and financial. The chances of keeping a player like Cesc Fabregas with only Europa League football are minimal; the chances of enticing a player such as Andrey Arshavin likewise. Shorn of the Champions League, Arsenal’s biggest selling point would be history and the chance to work with Wenger – and would even that be guaranteed?

Wenger has clearly tired of Adebayor, which is understandable. The player’s contradictory statements about his intentions, questionable attitude towards his team-mates and performances that often show a lack of focus and care would try the patience of any manager.

Yet Wenger claimed the main reason for selling was that Adebayor was unpopular with the home crowd. ‘Believe me, we have lost a great player,’ he said. If so, why sell? Why not tough it out? It sounds like an excuse. If Adebayor propels City into Arsenal’s place next season, is Wenger going to blame faceless detractors in the stand? That is hardly fair. Arsenal are not run by committee. If Adebayor is an asset, Wenger should have stood by him. He cannot have it all ways.

Perhaps Wenger thinks he is merely transferring a problem to a rival. He may smile that all he has sold Mark Hughes, the Manchester City manager, is a season of migraines, tantrums and dressing-room unrest. After all, Hughes has been buying strikers in a manner that is most gently described as haphazard. Selling him Adebayor is like throwing a lit match into a box of fireworks.

Hughes is already juggling a first-choice forward line of Robinho, Carlos Tevez and Roque Santa Cruz, not to mention a squad roll call that includes Craig Bellamy, Valeri Bojinov and Felipe Caicedo. Toss in Adebayor and wait for the explosion when the team sheet goes up.

Yet suppose he makes it work. Suppose by the start of the season Hughes has chopped out the dead wood and is left with a quartet of strong, skilful forwards, Adebayor chief among them.

Would that not be more than a match for what remains at Arsenal? Wenger has a gifted front line, but also a flawed one. Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott are prone to injury, while who knows how Eduardo will fare after such a long absence? Then there is Nicklas Bendtner, a player whose displays do not always support Wenger’s faith.
The last time Arsenal finished above fourth, Adebayor scored 30 goals.

Over the last three seasons he has averaged a fraction under 20 (which would place him in the Premier League’s top five most seasons), and when Manchester City last visited on April 4, Adebayor scored twice in a 2-0 win. Taking 20 away from the ‘goals for’ column would hurt any club, particularly if that number was then handed to a rival.

There is no doubt City will be a work in progress this season. It is hard to get so many new players to gel and Hughes has not got indefinite time to make it work.

Equally, throw enough money at a problem and it tends to go away.
Whoever said that success cannot be bought is no student of the league table. If City do get it together, Arsenal are under threat.

More than the loss of Patrick Vieira or Thierry Henry, this is Wenger’s big wager. Adebayor may have been Arsenal’s pain in the neck but he can hurt them a lot more from Manchester.