Selling Adebayor: Was it a right decision?

Michael Owen unveiling a brochure to attract buyers for himself is one thing - Arsenal fans doing likewise to attract a buyer for Emmanuel Adebayor is another.

While Owen's glossy pages spoke of "The Athlete, The Ambassador, The Icon", a replica produced by a group of Arsenal fans made a series of claims on Adebayor's behalf that were not altogether flattering.

According to his Emirates admirers, Adebayor's "brand values" included the Togo striker being "not small...wifi enabled...definitely not lazy..." Not to mention being "better than Marlon Harewood and Mido put together."

You get the picture. To the sound of tongues drilling holes in cheeks, this snapshot of Arsenal's support suggested he would not be missed should he leave.

And this is why Arsenal fans have not been storming the Emirates in fury at the club's decision to accept £25m of Manchester City's Abu Dhabi riches.

The reasoning is that Arsenal's team and bank balance would be enhanced by cashing in on Adebayor - and it is a theory based in sound logic.

Arsenal have bade farewell to a succession of high-profile players over the years, but very few have been sent on their way with such a wave of indifference as Adebayor. When covering Arsenal games last season, you had to try very hard to detect obvious signs of goodwill from supporters towards the player.

Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira departed with good grace and best wishes, Emmanuel Petit and Marc Overmars to Barcelona and Nicolas Anelka to Real Madrid for a huge profit. Ashley Cole went to Chelsea in exchange for cash and William Gallas amid well-chronicled rancour.
Mathieu Flamini was a regrettable departure on a free transfer to AC Milan, while Alexander Hleb has proved at Barcelona that Wenger got that call spot on.

As far as the Adebayor deal is concerned, the main fear among Arsenal's following is not that the deal will be completed, but that it might collapse.

It is all a far cry from the summer of 2008 when the gifted striker was basking in the achievement of scoring 30 goals in 48 games, a wonderful return that inevitably made him a target for Europe's elite.

AC Milan and Barcelona were among those courted, and even though he eventually signed a new and improved long-term contract, things have never been the same since.

Arsenal's supporters have since, in the main, treated Adebayor with a mixture of reserve and suspicion - and now see the prospect of receiving £25m in exchange for his services as another prime example of manager Arsene Wenger's ability to strike a good deal.

Manchester City's summer signings have all looked to have had a place in the grander scheme. Gareth Barry will provide maturity and quality in midfield, Roque Santa Cruz had his most fruitful goalscoring season under Mark Hughes at Blackburn and Carlos Tevez will provide industry and inspiration.

Adebayor? A goal threat and natural ability certainly, as his brilliant overhead kick against Villarreal in the Champions League proved - but a move to Eastlands does not appear to be the most natural fit.

Arsenal have the striking quality to compensate for Adebayor's absence. Robin van Persie, a more potent and driven player, has committed his future to the club and Andriy Arshavin gave golden glimpses of his quality last season.

Wenger will hope Eduardo, a natural and clinical marksman, can put injuries behind him while Carlos Vela could not be in better hands than Wenger's as he develops a potentially world-class talent.

Nicklas Bendtner is highly-rated by Wenger, who could use the Adebayor cash to add to that weaponry, as well as hunt down the combative midfield enforcer to add physical strength on top of the arrival of £10m defender Thomas Vermaelen.

Bordeaux's Moroccan striker Marouane Chamakh has emerged as a potential target, but as ever Wenger will not be rushed.

Wenger, we can say with some certainty, will have a plan and there is no obvious displeasure that it might not include the enigmatic, albeit lavishly talented, figure of Adebayor.

The New Lucky Number 7

The new no. 7 has been revealed! The lucky one is the new signing, Michael Owen. Is he gonna give a massive impact like what the likes of George Best, Eric Cantona, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo have done? Mr. Ferguson has put the very full of his faith on Michael. The players, the staff as well as the whole stadium and fans are following Sir Alex's decision to believe in Michael. The only question now lays on his ability to absorb pressure from the whole world.. Will he or won't he manage to give a hit? Let just see at the start of the season. We should believe of what Ferguson believe in his own players. The players also should be believing the new signings' ability to perform on the centre stages. They are what Fergie says as the new germs of the Devils' Theatre of Dreams. Just believe the gaffer. What he says should be what we say as well. The world have been waiting for Manchester United to make an impact in the transfer window instead Real Madrid have overshadowed them. Yet, Ferguson is not tired of being patient. We will see what he will do in the January window. Other clubs have been off-loading their money within weeks while Fergie is saving. We should know how wise the gaffer is as his little signings in the last decade had proved worth it.

United Fans Won't Panic As The Devils Lost Prize Pair

Manchester United have lost two of their best players in Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.
But there has been no hysterical reactions from fans. More new signings like Antonio Valencia would be welcomed, but there isn’t panic on the streets of Denton, Didsbury or Moss Side.
Sir Alex Ferguson has built up such a vast bank of credit that fans would look foolish if they started questioning the playing side of the club.

Ferguson had continually proved doubters wrong and the obdurate Glaswegian would gain great satisfaction from doing it again. United are linked with big names every day, dull agent-led talk. Papers believe it whets fans’ appetites and expectations, but such is the unreliability it merely grates.

United fans have wasted too much time in past summers fretting about whether Alan Shearer would arrive or Ronaldo would leave. Most have learned to know better and trust the manager. He knows best and he’ll bring in who he thinks is right for the club. He’s more likely to identify young emerging talents than go for the franchise-style players Real Madrid are distorting the market for. Ferguson’s obsession is winning football matches, not pumping up expectations, creating illusions and grand egotistical projects.

Ronaldo wanted to leave, something his team mates and manager knew well. He was an outstanding talent in his six years at Old Trafford. But like for most players from south of Marseille, Real Madrid and Barcelona have a far bigger pull than United or Liverpool, just as the two English giants have a bigger sway in Scandinavia.

Ronaldo’s left one club which has had the same manager since 1986 for one which has worked through eight coaches in five years. Madrid’s new coach, Manuel Pellegrini, is top level, but he won’t have the control of Ferguson and I’m sure Ronaldo will miss the stability and discipline which Ferguson offers. Ronaldo will also be closer to home. Manchester to Madeira takes 10 hours allowing for the two necessary connections. From Madrid it’s half that. One significant factor about the move is that it is the first time since Mark Hughes left Old Trafford for Barcelona in 1986 that United have lost a player they wanted to keep. The first time Ferguson has lost a player he wanted to stay.

Beckham and Van Nistelrooy both left for the Bernabéu when Ferguson decided they weren’t in his plans. Ronaldo was, but what was the point of keeping a player who didn’t want to be there?
Ronaldo also had a point when he said he wanted a fresh challenge. He’s won everything there is to win at Old Trafford and can see great opportunities to make his mark in Madrid. He’s gone and Ferguson will have access to the larger part of the £80 million fee to compensate for the rejection.

History will remember Ronaldo as a great United player. His self-confidence could be misplaced for arrogance, his posturing pretention, but if you wanted a player to score a key goal in Rome or Oporto, he was the man. United fans have idolised Bryan Robson, Roy Keane, David Beckham and Eric Cantona, but the wider footballing community always denied these United heroes the ultimate accolade. Ronaldo achieved that when he was voted European Player of the Year for 2008. The Madeiran thus did something that no United player has managed since George Best 40 years ago.

We’d be bitter not to wish him well, but it’s in Sir Alex Ferguson, not Cristiano Ronaldo, that United fans trust. Jordi Cruyff always said that when he played for Manchester United he felt like he was the tail of an elephant. Whereas when he played at Alaves or Celta Vigo he felt like the head. Carlos Tevez was not satisfied with being a leg which never stopped moving and kicking, so he’ll move to be the *rse of a big white (and laser blue) elephant.

I liked Tevez. I interviewed him in Durban last summer and he was sound. He was United’s man of the match in Moscow against Chelsea, but what matters is Ferguson’s opinion. If he doesn’t think that he’s worth the fee, he knows the market better than any supporter. He’s made unpopular decisions before, like selling Norman Whiteside, Paul McGrath, Paul Ince, Mark Hughes, Andrei Kanchelskis and Jaap Stam. He’s usually been vindicated. Backed by a now finely honed scouting team, Ferguson has consistently identified the right talents and rebuilt United teams without anyone having the time to pause and talk about transition.

From emerging but established players such as Patrice Evra, Anderson and Ronaldo himself, to scores of youngsters from Paul Scholes to Federico Macheda, Ferguson gets it right. Others will follow and there’s far more satisfaction in watching a player develop and thrive under Ferguson than seeing top name internationals like Juan Sebastian Veron or Laurent Blanc perform sporadically.

A Spanish friend spoke to Rafa Benitez several years ago. In private, Benitez had correctly identified a player who he thought would become the best centre half in Europe, but Liverpool were reluctant to sanction the funds to buy him.

He was called Nemanja Vidic.

It’s in that market, not the tabloid market, which Ferguson will be currently working hard.

How Much Does It Worth For Sir Alex's Gamble On Owen?

Sir Alex Ferguson placed his faith in something he trusts far more than a glossy brochure when he picked up the phone and offered Michael Owen a new home at Manchester United.
Owen's management team produced the 32-page magazine advertising their client's qualities - aspirational, cool, devoted and sincere to name but four - and delivered a slick reminder of why he was once one of football's genuine superstars.

Ferguson does not do brochures to buy players. Pure instinct and the love of a punt is often enough and the shock pursuit of Owen, mocked only days ago when Hull City and Stoke City declared an interest, is a prime example.

United's vast budget, helped by £80m from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo, lets Ferguson shop at the sharp end of the market - but also gives him the opportunity to take the odd chance. Owen falls neatly into that bracket as prospective targets Karim Benzema, David Villa and Franck Ribery go elsewhere.

So is this a sign of desperation creeping into United's transfer dealings or another piece of inspiration from the gambler Ferguson?

Ferguson has got form for the maverick deal. Eric Cantona was not a regular at Leeds United when Ferguson took him across the M62 and elevated him to Old Trafford's legends.
Laurent Blanc was an itch Ferguson simply had to scratch and that was not a huge success, but Teddy Sheringham came late to Old Trafford and cleaned up on silverware, while the veteran Henrik Larsson made a contribution when he joined United on loan from Helsingborg in December 2006.

Blanc and Larsson were players Ferguson had long wanted at Old Trafford and it was source of regret that he only got his hands on them in the twilight of their careers. Owen has tempted him before, but now he feels the time and price is right.

As I noted in an earlier blog, Owen represents a gamble worth taking and his wages are not prohibitive when lesser talents will be going for just as much this summer.
The shock of this story is Owen's destination. Hull and Stoke were never serious options, but Everton and Aston Villa were - only for United to come out of left field on Thursday afternoon.
So who gets what from this transfer? And will certain other clubs come to regret leaving the field free for Ferguson to set up a deal that comes as a surprise, even to the supposedly unshockable Premier League community?

For Owen, this is a staggering opportunity that he could never have imagined being placed in front of him when he trudged off Villa Park after another fruitless cameo appearance for Newcastle United as they dropped into the Championship.

And yet, for all the shockwaves this move will cause, Owen will not turn turn up at Old Trafford believing Ferguson has done him a good turn. He will feel he can benefit Manchester United just as much as they can benefit him.

He has an iron shield of self-belief and has never lost the conviction that his rightful place is at a top four club with aspirations of winning the Premier League and the Champions League.
If anyone doubts that, then they do not know Michael Owen. Single-minded barely does him justice and those who speculated that he had lost his love of football were equally wrong-headed.
This is what made him extraordinary at 16 and will fuel him when he walks into Old Trafford.
He is unlikely to worry about his status with Liverpool's fans if he puts pen to paper with rivals United, even though a return to Anfield has probably always been his preferred option, especially when he left Real Madrid.

Owen still has influential supporters inside Liverpool's dressing room who would like to see him back at Anfield, but manager Rafael Benitez has remained unmoved on Owen.
It is a view shaped when he left for Spain at the start of his reign in 2004 and refused to hold out for a move back to Anfield when Newcastle came calling 12 months later - a decision rightly based on the player's fears of missing the next summer's World Cup.

Owen will see United as the perfect platform for one last stab at persuaduing Fabio Capello that he is worthy of consideration for England's World Cup campaign in South Africa next summer.
And he could hardly have asked for a better stage to demonstrate that he should still play a part with England, especially with Wayne Rooney in tandem at club level. Try as you might, it is impossible to detect a downside in this deal for Owen.

United's reasoning will come under closer scrutiny - but Ferguson's move is based on both need and logic as well as his own gut feeling.

Manchester United supporters expecting the arrival of world superstars may need convincing that Owen is the direction they should be heading in. Owen will split opinion, but goals shape verdicts and if he hits the mark early all previous allegiances and injuries will be forgotten.
Ferguson has watched United's potency decreased by the departure of Ronaldo and, to a much lesser extent, Carlos Tevez. Owen may have lost the searing pace of his youth, but his goalscoring record when fit still stands up to serious examination.

And as someone who watched United regularly last season, if there was one element missing from the squad that deservedly claimed a third successive Premier League title, it was a ruthless, killer instinct. Owen will never lose that and the pragmatist in Ferguson tells him that, even at 29, he can add an extra dimension to United.

If United create chances, which they do with regularity, Owen is still as good as anyone around at converting them if he is playing and this will have been the final reckoning for Ferguson, who will tailor his role and appearances to draw the best out of such an accomplioshed marksman.
Owen's fitness will be the question mark over the deal, but Ferguson's medical team have mastered such things before and it is unlikely he will be thrust into United's side as a regular.
The striker was being mocked for his failure to attract serious interest only days ago. It does not get more serious than Manchester United - so do not bet against Owen having the last laugh.
For Owen, the deal is a huge victory. For United and Ferguson it represents a gamble - but it is a gamble based on some sound footballing logic and one that others might yet regret not taking.