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Adebayor claims exit 'will benefit Arsenal
Emmanuel Adebayor signalled for the first time yesterday that he wants to leave Arsenal. The Togolese striker reminded the club that they will profit hugely from his transfer. Adebayor broke his silence on the interest in him expressed by Barcelona and Milan to say that he had a meeting next week with Arsène Wenger, in which he hoped to sort out his future.
Arsenal know that the 24-year-old wants to leave, and will tell him that they expect a fee in excess of £20m, but Adebayor reminded the club yesterday that he did not owe them anything after they took a chance by signing him from Monaco in January 2006.
"If he [Wenger] sells me, if what they say in the newspapers is right they are going to get £50m maybe £60m for me and they bought me for £10m. So everyone is getting the benefits. They have to make a good decision and I have to make a good decision as well."
Adebayor has asked for an enormous rise in his wages, understood to be more than double his current £30,000-a-week – a request with which Arsenal will not agree. The player said he had a close relationship with his manager but that it was strictly business when it came to his future.
"He is like a father to me, that is why I love him a lot," Adebayor said. "But he bought me because he believed in my quality. He didn't buy me because I am from Togo or because I needed money or because I look beautiful. He put me where I am today, no doubt about that but he bought me because he thought I could do something good for the club."
Adebayor was in Vienna yesterday on behalf of his boot sponsors, adidas, whose Euro 2008 slogan – "Impossible is nothing" – would be fitting should the player manage to persuade his famously parsimonious club to give him the salary he wants.
"I have a three-year contract with Arsenal and you know better than anyone that a lot of teams want me to play for them," he said. "Nothing has been decided yet. We will sit down next week and decide what is good for my career and that is the most important thing. We will have to meet with him [Wenger] before anything."
The two men could have had that meeting yesterday as Wenger was also in Vienna as part of his work at Euro 2008 as a television pundit and corporate speaker. That the pair even need to speak, given that Adebayor has three years left on his contract, demonstrates how close the club believe they are to losing a player who was their top scorer last season. Adebayor admitted he was flattered by the interest in him and hoped to have his future settled by 21 July, when pre-season began.
"Surprised, yes, flattered, yes [by the interest]," he said. "I was surprised because I never thought there would be so many clubs who said they wanted to buy me. Flattered, yes, I am very happy because I am a footballer who came from Togo seven years ago. I had a dream of playing for Arsenal and now I have a chance of playing with one of the biggest clubs in the world. Arsenal is one of the loveliest clubs in the world, when I go back to Africa it is obvious that a lot of people love the club."
Adebayor added: "I have a lot of big clubs trying to buy me and it is up to me and my agent, Stephane Courbis, to sit down next week and find a good solution. I am in a position that I don't know where I will be playing but that is normal. If you told me seven years ago when I was playing in Togo without football boots that I would have a choice of playing in Spain or Italy it would seem crazy."
Arsenal are also poised for another attempt from their biggest shareholder, Alisher Usmanov, to try to invest in the club. It is understood that he is about to float his aluminium company, Metalloinvest, and is prepared to put up to £100m into the club every season. So far the board have resisted any attempt by Usmanov, who now owns 24.9 per cent of Arsenal, to gain a foothold.
l The Turkey coach, Fatih Terim, will remain in his post and lead the country to the 2010 World Cup, the Turkish Federation said yesterday. After Turkey lost 3-2 to Germany in Wednesday's Euro 2008 semi-final, Terim had said he would probably step down.
* The Football Association is to ban competitive league football for children under eight in order to focus on coaching and technique. The governing body believes there is "an urgent need to improve skills and technique among young English players".