The statements Adebayor made yesterday caused lot’s of confusion and indignation amongst fans. While most of the points made are quite valid, has anyone tried looking at the situation from his perspective?

First of all let’s clear up some popular misconceptions.

1. Despite what you read no one from Ade’s camp has not made any unreasonable demands of Arsenal. More on that later
2. All the noises about a possible to Milan or Barca has come from “superagent” Vincenzo Morabati, who represents AC Milan not Adebayor. Adebayor’s agent is Stephane Courbis.
3. When Ade said “we will know next week” that is because this is the time arranged by both parties (Arsenal and Adebayor) to meet.

After having such a good season Ade is entirely within his rights to ask for a raise, just like anyone of us would of our employers after performing so strong for the year.

Knowing that Milan is so desperate to sign him, he would be extremely foolish not to use them as a negotiating tool. Coming out in a press conference and saying you are committed to Arsenal is tantamount to showing all your cards to the opposition.

Any good agent would be furious with their client for throwing away such a great bargaining chip, I would assume then that Stephane immediately let Ade know of his folly. If his agent didn’t do that then at the very least the player himself would have recognised his mistake.

When questioned later Ade said

“I am a footballer, I have a three-year contract at Arsenal but as you know, a lot of clubs are interested in me,”

“At the moment we are just going to sit down and talk and decide what to do.”

Normally there is nothing wrong with this statement, it is the usual ambiguous blurb the footballers are taught to repeat at times like this. The only problem is that it contradicts his previous statements.

As far as we know Ade is on no more than £30k a week, it could be much lower.

Can anyone say it is unreasonable for Adebayor to want a raise?

When asking for a pay rise you use everything you can to get the best deal from you employer (if you are not then you’re losing out) and in football the biggest bargaining chip is the prospect of other clubs coveting a player.

Be sure that figures you hear going around is no where close to what Ade’s team will ask for £120k is just a made up number. I think that £60-70k weekly is reasonable for Adebayor to ask for, with this in mind he should start negotiations at £90k.

Remember this is what negotiating is about. And for those who says but he signed a contract last season.

Think of it this way, you’ve signed a contract one year ago, but you’ve made record sales and seen as one of the company’s top performers. Another company notices your ability and wants to give you much better terms, wouldn’t you at least look at what is being offered and go to your employer to negotiate a better deal?

That’s all the man wants, a better deal.

Is that not reasonable?

Tags: AC Milan, Adebayor, Arsenal, Morabati

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 28th, 2008 at 20:46 and is filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.