Beşiktaş in Talks with Tottenham about Emmanuel Adebayor

Ahmet Kavalcı, a board member of the Istanbul club Beşiktaş, revealed in a post-training press conference yesterday that his club is attempting to sign striker Emmanuel Adebayor from Tottenham Hotspur. The website Turkish-Football.com has picked up the story and translated Kavalcı's comments.

"We are definitely interested in him Adebayor and have made an offer," Kavalcı said.

"Adebayor currently wants more than what he were hoping however, talks are ongoing however, we hope to complete the transfer as soon as possible."

The story as written in Turkish-Football is not entirely clear, as it seems to suggest that Beşiktaş are offering a €5m fee directly to the Spurs striker, when presumably that fee would have to go to the club that has his contract. The report does say that Beşiktaş plan to cover Adebayor's full wages, but the explanation of how that will be done—through sponsorships and by taking advantage of Turkey's comparatively low top tax bracket of 15%—sounds a touch hopeful to me.

And indeed, I went looking for the Turkish media sites which must have originally picked up the story, and at least Goggle translate suggests they're telling a somewhat different story. The Turkish newspaper Milliyet does confirm the broad story, but its headline highlights a different part of the board member's statement. Kavalcı said "Adebayor transferi zor gözüküyor," which Google suggests means something like, "Adebayor looks to be difficult to transfer" or "Adebayor transfer seems tough."

It is certainly plausible that Spurs might look to transfer Adebayor, and it is certainly true that anyone looking for a bargain signing from Daniel Levy might find it difficult to complete the signing. €5m would be pretty close to the transfer fee that Tottenham paid for Adebayor in the first place. So this isn't crazy.

One important hang-up in getting any deal done, I would guess, is Tottenham's own roster shuffling. Emmanuel Adebayor is currently our first-choice striker, and even if the David Villa transfer goes through, it's not like the 31-year-old Villa could be counted on to play 38 league games, let alone 38 league games plus a dozen Europa League matches. Tottenham need to know they won't need Adebayor next year before selling him, but of course they'll get a larger fee if they sell Adebayor before it's clear to other clubs that they have to. Kavalcı is right, the transfer window is difficult.