Flip-flops and whispers

By Gabo Camnitzer on Monday, July 7, 2008

The "flip-flop," the most blatant and brazen act of hypocrisy, usually reserved to legislative politics, is something that's becoming more and more common in the football world, but for different reasons. It's hard to maintain good face while ensuring you're not being exploited by your club.

A week ago, I woke up and hit refresh on Sky Sports, hoping for news of Nasri confirmed in or Ronaldo confirmed out, only to read the headlines - Adebayor declares loyalty to Arsenal.

"Well, well," I thought, "that's nice of the chap, reiterating his loyalty in the face of the growing speculation over his future and that of several of our other players." I even watched the clip from the press conference and admired the similarities between his speech and his style of play, his blas¨¦ English, with its unpredictable speed, strange cadence, dipping and ascending with each word flowing unassumingly into the next, all the while with an unmistakable, though sometimes misplaced, confidence. But I realize now my naivete; at the time I felt this was a non-story, "Of course he was staying, how dare he even think we thought he was leaving," so I should have seen what was coming.

I went from 99% sure he was staying before the story, to 99.9% after the story, to about .09% an hour later after his now infamous "flip-flop." Why was I so sure he was staying? He scored 30 goals, has pace and size, and potential for more, and Arsenal is paying him a pittance compared to what other clubs would. The thing is, I always thought of him as one of Wenger's babies (babes if you will). A player who, if not for Wenger, would be trotting it out in obscurity in Ligue 1 or worse.

Thus I never lent any merit to the idea of him leaving, first due to his debt of gratitude to Wenger, and second because I couldn't believe Wenger would be willing to part with another prime example of his genius for anything less than the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and that any club would be willing to actually pay us the Democratic Republic of the Congo for a player so clearly a product of his maker. I for one don't buy into the mystery of the curse of Arsenal, that when players leave, they fail. It's no mystery. Wenger is the master gardener of exotic plants. They look beautiful and everyone wants one, but whenever Le Jardinier decides to sell one, they are doomed to fail, for the intricacies of their maintenance are far too complex and demanding than other clubs realise, and rather than care for the plant, nine times out of ten they end up giving it away to an even less competent owner.

If you go back to January of 2006, when we signed Ade from Monaco, few of us were saying, "Yes of course, saw that coming, mile away." On the contrary, most of us were saying "Who, what, where, why?!" Two and a half-years on, Henry is gone and Adebayor has a price tag in the range of Henry and Ronaldinho combined. I still can't wrap my head around how fast this has all happened. But I have digressed.

As could have been expected in the wake of his "flip-flop," a lot of animosity has built up for Ade-boy amongst us Gooners. Thus if he does end up staying, he will have some serious mending of fences to do. But that said, I still think the silent majority would be relieved if Ade stays. And I say "silent" for a reason, for a great majority of the blogging Gooners say otherwise. In this situation it seems the ones who want to hold on to Ade don't feel like its an opinion worth arguing, for arguing for the status quo is never noteworthy, and usually deemed reactionary, stirring up more unrest than it puts to rest.

Here I would like to present the argument of the hushed Gooners, those whispering voices in the pubs by candlelight. They, not surprisingly, want to win something next year, ideally the league, and they believe continuity is the key to this. They understand United are only getting stronger, and that they are doing it by adding, through exorbitant spending, to their core structure; they are ensuring their future without threatening their equilibrium. This is why Ronaldo leaving would be such a coup.

It would not only signify United's fallibility once again, but it would upset their equilibrium - well, at least for a year. The point is, we came within touching distance of the title last year, with a squad that could only improve. Failure, studied and understood, paves the way for success, but only if the variables remain constant. Otherwise, you lose the grounds for a sound hypothesis. And the variables of our starting XI are the key here, much more important then the transactions of the other 19 clubs. We lost the title last year, United didn't win it. What cost us was our inexperience and relative youth. In order to reap the benefits of our own failures last year, it's imperative to keep the squad intact. We can view last year's campaign as a learning experience or as a failed experiment which needs total revamping.

Some may think it's too late to stay the course, now that Flamini has left. But I beg to differ. I think any player consistently partnered with Cesc will look good, for Cesc offers any holding player the opportunity to flourish, as he can compensate for their mistakes quickly and without incident. Yes, Flamini was the top passing holding midfielder in the league last year, but looking back at some games on tape, you quickly realise the majority of those passes were one-twos with Cesc, and if there is one thing Cesc doesn't get enough credit for, it's his ability to receive passes as skilfully as he distributes them. But to get back to Adebayor.

I recall watching the second meeting with Derby last season. Derby had mustered up a rare goal in the first half, and Wenger brought Ade on for RVP during the break. After Ade missed two sitters in the first 10 minutes of the half, the Gooner bartender at the establishment I was attending, turned to me, the only other person, let alone Gooner, in the place, and said, "I'm tired of this, he's just garbage." Recalling Ade's hat-trick in the encounter with Derby early in the season, I grunted something between affirmation and indignation. By that point in the year, all was lost, I was looking for anyone to blame, my dog included, so I was pretty much open to anything. But my ambivalence was soon rewarded as Ade went on to score another hat-trick in the ensuing 35 minutes. No mean feat, even against the worst club in history.

I've heard a lot of people say Ade went missing mid-season last year, (yes, after cutting his hair). But I think this is only when you compare him to himself - his early season form was extraordinary. As the season wore on he did prove inconsistent, but I believe this was partly due to the fact that in the wake of Eduardo's injury, added to the already crowded injury list, Wenger was forced to overplay Ade, and Ade began to wear. And though his goals became less frequent, they never became less important (Milan, Liverpool, United, the latter two being losses, but due to no fault of his own).

Of course people screamed out whenever he missed a sitter, but the stats show he wasn't nearly as bad in front of goal as people seem to think. The guy is only 24, when compared to Henry at the same age, Adebayor is actually better head-to-head statistically (by a hair, I must admit) but still, a better finisher (Martin Tyler is the one who figured that out). While I do not think this entitles Ade to demand the same wages Henry was receiving in his prime (after all its only been one season of good form), I do think he is entitled to some kind of pay raise, as last summer, when he negotiated his current contract, he wasn't being appraised as one of the top strikers in Europe. So of course he should seek affirmation for his good work in the form of a re-evaluation of his contract.

But what worries me most about Ade's potential sale is not necessarily losing our top striker, but the precedent it would set. If we can't hold onto players once we've cultivated them, what are we other than a feeder for Europe's "top guns". We should be setting an example in keeping Ade. €40 million is a lot of money, but as we know from experience, Wenger is not going to spend it on a big name replacement. And any striker brought in below the €20 million isn't going to come close to Ade's tally in their first year with Arsenal, thus making likely another year without silverware. This is what the hushed Gooners are whispering about in the pubs by candlelight.

Any potential replacement for Ade will come bearing unknown risks. Roque Santa Cruz, who seems to be a leading candidate, is truly something special - charismatic, unafraid, and strong as he is quick, but I've followed him for ages now, due to some fellow roots in South America, and am wary of his proneness to injury, something all too familiar to us Gooners. Rovers were lucky to have him fit for an entire season, something he never managed at Munich. I would love him at Arsenal, but we'd have to offer him extra protection from teams precisely like Blackburn, who are out to kick us into the ground. With Blackburn last season, Roque was surrounded by a keeper, two decent wingers, and 7 maniacs with razor sharp studs, even after Robbie Savage left. No one in their right mind would have pulled a "Deutsche studs-up" on him while he was rolling with that crew of thugs. I don't think we can offer him the same protection.

Perhaps Ars¨¨ne knows something we don't and thinks Ade's season was a fluke and it's best to cash in now. But barring that, I don't see how he could sell him. I don't think Ade wants to go, he just chose an awkward and embarrassing way of seeking a pay hike, and is now in over his head. While the current wages of players across Europe are ridiculous, and only continuing to spiral out of control, I don't think Arsenal's wage structure is sustainable. In fact, it's anachronistic. The only way to slow down the wage explosion is a general salary system with a cap imposed by the governing body, UEFA. Arsenal can't be the lone voice fighting the trend. We'll drown out and die.

Moreover, Adebayor's leaving would precipitate trouble for us in the long run as any new signings, such as Nasri and Ramsey, will be off as soon as they can demand bigger checks and play in front of 70,000+ heads at home. Because let's face it, if you're not English, that is the be all end all for a footballer. Speaking of Flamini's departure, having been to both the Emirates and San Siro myself, I'd say that at Arsenal he was doing world class art films, but now at the San Siro he'll be doing opera. It's night and day. Champions League or not. I don't care for the theatrics of Serie A, but let's not forget Flamini's French upbringing and Italian ancestery.

He didn't come up dreaming of wearing the Red and White. And regarding loyalty, we always hear of players growing up supporting Barca, Real, Milan, Juve. (i.e. Ronaldo, Arshavin) Why can't we sign players who grew up Gooners. An entire generation of footballers is coming of age now who grew up with Wenger's Arsenal and thus dream of playing here, now. We've reaped some of these benefits through Clairefontaine and our academy in Shenley, but we are now a global club, and our net has spread wider than Islington and France.

If we got our hands on some Gooner kids from Argentina (yes, they exist), they'll show the same loyalty that Xavi, Raul, Pirlo, Maldini, Buffon, Adams have shown. Colin Kazim-Richards for example, is a life-long Arsenal supporter. He impressed during the European Championships and while his patriotism could be questioned in playing for Turkey when the boy doesn't even speak Turkish, I would welcome a born and bred gunner in our midst.

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