Adebayor moves to Manchester City

Manchester City are having a thrilling transfer window with exciting, attacking signings to strengthen their 2009/2010 Premier League campaign.

Adebayor and Tevez could be great upfront for City....now they need some world class defenders. They've got the funds!

Adebayor to Manchester: City or United

I said this before but when you hear ex-footballers moan and groan it really irritates me. Why do footballers get criticised when they look for the best money deal about? Their careers in the majority are short as only a select few go on to coaching at any type of professional level.

Last season, Adebayor was interested in a move to Real from a cash point of view but decided to stay with the Gunners for another season. The Arsenal faithful moan about his work rate and overall contribution but surely have to observe that Adebayor on form has pushed Arsenal on in the striking department.

Along come rich boys Manchester City bidding on any European player even hinting at looking for a new club, however seemingly in this case Mark Hughes has really started the ball rolling with going to Wenger about Adebayor.

Now Adebayor has allegedly been offered to Manchester United. From a relatively unknown source, I have been told that Alex Ferguson has one more signing up his sleeve and that the deal has been done already for around £11m. We shall see, but some of the rumours are that Adebayor is stalling because he wants to play in a more established team.

Good luck to Manchester City. Before any fans criticise them, they should think about the big clubs who created the gap between them and the small clubs. Then of course there's Chelsea, who have gone through being hated but are now perceived as a genuine big club.

So who is Fergie going to sign because his claim that he has finished in the market was surely a bit of politics either to get his target's price down and/or to show confidence in his existing squad?

A Great Summer to be a Man City fan

It looks likely that by the time this blog is published, Emmanuel Adebayor will have joined the impressive list of Manchester City signings , adding his name to an already formidable strike force including Craig Bellamy, Roque Santa Cruz, Benjani, Ched Evans, Felipe Caicedo, Valeri Bojinov, Robinho and Tevez.

In Adebayor, City will be buying a player who has scored 62 goals in 142 appearances for Arsenal since he joined the Gunners from Monaco for £7m, although Arsenal fans would claim that too few of these goals came in the 2008/9 season due to a lack of commitment from the Togo international. Mark Hughes, admired by many as a player and a manager, must believe he will be able to motivate Adebayor and succeed where a fellow esteemed veteran of the management game, Arsene Wenger, appears to have failed in recent months.

This will of course be just one of the challenges facing Mark Hughes this season. Despite being armed with a team sheet and a pot of money that most managers can only dream of, Hughes will have to deal with the pressure of the high expectations of the club’s billionaire owners and of the fans. Meeting their expectations will not be easy as a group of brilliant individual players does not necessarily gel as a successful team immediately. Hughes will also have to deal with any fallout from players who do not make the starting eleven regularly, which is particularly difficult when these players will be extremely wealthy young men, who do not need to work beyond their football careers and will almost certainly be prone to bouts of petulance and egotism.

Will the Blues fans have the patience, if required, to wait for trophies from their team? I hope so, because none of them will want to follow the path that the other wealthy team of Blues took after they sacked Mourinho.

However even as I write this piece about all the pitfalls that may lie ahead for Hughes and City, I can not deny that it’s a great time to be a city fan. Like most football fans out there I’d love a group of billionaires to throw money at my club and put together a team like Hughes is putting together. If City can break into the top four, the most exciting league in the world will become that little more exciting, and this will give hope to all fans of teams lingering in mid-table mediocrity that every dog really does have its day.

Alonso to Madrid - Good business?

Xabi Alonso by many was a top 5 Premier League midfielder last season, forming a great partnership with Mascherano in the engine room of Liverpool's team. So now he reportedly wants to play at the Bernabeu next season alongside 'galacticos' such as Kaka and Ronaldo and Benitez is holding out for top dollar. Shades of Daniel Levy holding on to Berbatov and losing sight on what is important - your starting eleven on day one of the football season. The Reds have a great chance to put more pressure on Man Utd....why sell one of your key men, is this good business fellow football bloggers?

Portsmouth want Chimbonda

Pompey have expressed an interest in Tottenham Hotspur right back Pascal Chimbonda after an eventful 2008/2009 season for the Frenchman. Chim started off the season at the Stadium of Light but Roy Keane didn't fancy him so Harry Redknapp snapped him back up for the lily whites. Apparently he took a pay cut moving back to Tottenham, now he is playing down a rumoured £2.5m move but you can imagine this one happening, perhaps in a deal to get Crouchy to the lane.

Tottenham link : Kenwyne Jones

As previously reported at Football News Latest, Spurs are being their usual stubborn selves with Sunderland by insisting on charging them a premium for Darren Bent. However now this fee has been negotiated down to £10-12m Harry sounds like he might be looking for something more like a swap deal, as Spurs have expressed a big interest historically and in recent weeks on the impressive Sunderland forward Kenwyne Jones.

Harry Redknapp in typical fashion has been linked with many other players - Peter Crouch (Portsmouth), Craig Bellamy (Manchester City) and John Carew (Aston Villa). Potentially a difficult pre-season signings wise for the Tottenham with the impact of Real Madrid and Manchester City on the European football transfer market.

Robbie Keane football gossip

Spurs journeyman Robbie Keane is linked now with interest from Aston Villa manager Martin O'Neil. After an awkward U-turn on his move from Spurs to Liverpool this interest will be flattering to the Irish striker, but I reckon Harry will want to keep hold of Keane as opposed to create another problem as Tottenham did last pre-season by selling him then.

Alvaro Negredo Football Gossip

Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are both eyeing up striker Alvaro Negredo from Almeria. Last season Negredo racked up 19 goals in 34 appearances in La Liga.

Michael Owen : Manchester United link

Much has been said about th ex England striker Michael Owen - he gets paid too much, he's not good enough for the Premier League but his goal scoring record speaks for itself. The team that sign Owen will go for a performance related pay based on appearances and goals.

Will it be Sir Alex and Man Utd that take a punt and benefit from all of that experience and natural goalscoring ability?

Emmanuel Adebayor link AC MILAN

Arsenal striker linked with AC Milan

Arsenal upfront man Emmanuel Adebayor has been linked with a move to the San Siro with AC Milan continuing their unsuccessful chase from last year. If AC don't secure the signing of Wolfburg's Edin Dzeko they will go in for Adebayor....