ARSENAL FANS HOUNDED ADEBAYOR OUT

Emmanuel Adebayor is a good player and a sharp forward. No matter how much vitriol is directed at the Togolese international, the fact is that many coaches would love to see the player turn up for their first eleven. Packed with power height and pace, Adebayor is any and every defender’s nightmare. He may not be a perfect marksman in front of goal but Adebayor still scores goals and plenty of them. So it surprised me beyond belief to read that there are some commentators (largely in the UK and including former Arsenal player Ray Parlour) who dismissed his planned and apparently imminent departure from Arsenal as inconsequential and joined a band of fans (and a growing one at that) that called the Arsenal forward ‘lazy’. Many have termed his departure as some sort of good riddance.

I am an Arsenal fan and a true one at that. I don’t live in North London and do not have a season ticket. To the contrary I am an Arsenal fan in Kenya. I know there are fans who are more passionate about the club because of their historical association with the club, hence their intolerance of players who display a lack of serious commitment to the Gunners. I was won over by the club's beautiful football. But I believe that Adebayor worked hard and gave Arsenal some fantastic goals (and moments) during his stay at the Emirates. He may have had an attitude problem but that was largely down to the fact that the fans are the ones who made him ill-at-ease, uncomfortable and unwelcome for the better part of the last season. They wrote unsavoury comments on the man who played a pivotal role in Arsenal’s title assault one season ago. They were condescending to a player who had a bad season because of an injury. Yet you and me know that all Arsenal players who had injuries last season including the fans favourite Cesc Fabregas had a below par spell on the pitch. Yes, there were times when the fans sang his name but these were few moments... at best interspersed.

At least Adebayor scored over a dozen goals (including a crucial away goal against Spanish side Villareal in the last UEFA Champion’s League- and what a beautiful goal that was). The fans were hungry for more... forgetting that they had made nasty comments the moment Adebayor wanted to make a move to AC Milan. They were thirsty for goals and rightly believed that Adebayor was the man to deliver them: a goal-minting machine. Yet Adebayor was a bit unsettled and had some serious injuries to deal with. He also knew that no matter how many goals he sent and shipped through the posts, there would always be some Arsenal fans who believed he wasn’t their man... he was a man on the move. Those thoughts, it now appears, weighed down Adebayor.

Adebayor demanded a £80,000 a week contract after his super 30-goal season because he deserved it. Pure and simple... there is no such thing as philanthropy in football. Players rise through the ranks, they work their socks off... they learn from master coaches like Arsene Wenger and in the end they move higher up the income ladder and demand a transfer and strike for riches when the iron is still hot. To expect Adebayor to remain at the lower levels of the income echelons in the name of loyalty is expecting that the Togolese was a descendant of North London. He is a professional and must exhibit loyalty... but at the end of the day it is all about him and his family; him and his earnings.

There is no gainsaying the fact that Adebayor owes a lot of his success to his coach and current mentor, Arsene Wenger. The Togolese knows that and he has never ever shown disrespect to Wenger. The Frenchman on his part also respects and admires Adebayor and privately believes that the Emirates fans have hounded out a good player. He told them so to their faces at an AGM during which a section of the fans and shareholders loudly asked him to sell Adebayor (in a not so healthy package of abuses and claims). The height of that ignominious campaign to kick Ade in the teeth was when a section of fans produced a Michael Owen type of sale brochure advertising the services of Adebayor. How thankless from the fans... how cold and calculating!!! Adebayor scored thirty goals in one flawless season... about 16 goals in the last season despite an injury. He had never spoken of a second transfer this time round and wanted to work hard to come back to form. He needed some time and understanding but the fans were not willing to offer him that.

Yet the likes of Cesc Fabregas struggled, huffed and puffed in front of goal last season (after his injury)... Bendtner blew away many golden chances with just the goalkeeper to beat... Van Persie was at times lost on the pitch. The fans were understanding and gave the players much needed warm applause and support. But they picked on Emmanuel Adebayor... they booed Emmanuel Eboue ... why the double standards?

I wish Arsenal the best this coming season. But fans will have to exercise patience and care when dealing with players coming through a difficult patch. Methinks that Adebayor’s lackluster performance against Manchester United (during the Champion’s League semi-final) was a direct retaliation by the striker against fans who had given him the flak unrelentingly and sometimes unfairly. That was an inexcusable shoddy performance on the pitch by the Togolese international. But Adebayor is human after all. He broke down long before he was benched in subsequent matches (following that game) thanks to a huge, marauding pack of fans that deliberately hounded him out of the Emirates. He knew that the coming season was not going to be different. Even coach Arsene Wenger knew that the fans would continue hitting Adebayor below the belt. The English press had found a perfect punching bag and released heated articles bashing Adebayor and built a run of stories suggesting that the club wanted a replacement for the player. They painted a picture of an inevitable transfer. Even if he worked hard in training and placed his heart and mind at the Emirates... the fans would still bash him. Now Adebayor is seeking a new start at Manchester City even as the accusations of disloyalty and hate articles continue popping up on the Internet. But Arsenal fans will have to rally behind the remaining players if a repeat of such a departure is to be avoided.