Spurs 2014-15 Season in Review: Emmanuel Adebayor

Cartilage Free Captain is reviewing each of Spurs' first team players and evaluating their season. The series continues today with Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor.

Emmanuel Adebayor

Goals: 2
Assists: 1
Minutes played: 985

What went right?

For Emmanuel Adebayor, this was supposed to be a season of redemption. After a good initial loan deal at Spurs but a terrible time under Andre Villas-Boas, he was abandoned to the footballing wilderness, only to be brought back by Tim Sherwood at the end of the 2013-14 season. And he played very well in that stretch. He had a solid offseason, made nice with Mauricio Pochettino, and was even named club vice-captain. He started the first seven matches of the season and nabbed a goal in Spurs' 4-0 dismantling of QPR. It looked like things have started to turn around for the Togo striker.

What went wrong?

And then the wheels fell off. Adebayor's last meaningful match for Spurs was the 2-1 victory over Aston Villa, the one more known as the coming out party for Harry Kane, who scored a magnificent 90' free kick. The ascension of Kane, combined with Adebayor's alleged complicity in the "Kaboul Cabal" saga after the Stoke City loss that relegated himself, club captain Younes Kaboul, and Etienne Capoue to the fringes of the squad, meant that his future was thereafter in doubt. He played only 46 league minutes for the remainder of the season, and when he did play he was virtually a non factor, looking at times completely lost and at other times uninterested.

It's a little harsh on Adebayor, especially considering that the man struggled with immense family-related personal problems that led to two compassionate leaves from the club and even thoughts of suicide. The human being in me pities what Ade has had to go through the past couple of years at Spurs and there are a lot of things that are much more important than football. I wish Ade nothing but the best and hope things turn around for him. But there's no questioning that he has been incredibly poor from a footballing perspective, and has done virtually nothing to justify keeping him and his £120k/week salary around.

What now?

Adebayor's tenure at Spurs is now untenable. He's going to leave the club. The only question is when, how, and how much the club will receive for him. He's been linked to midtable clubs such as Aston Villa and Crystal Palace, and has recently expressed an interest (through his agent) of playing in Turkey like his friend Didier Drogba. If I were to guess, it's a matter of finding the best deal possible that minimizes the amount of his salary that Tottenham will have to subsidize when he does go. But go he must. And soon.

Grade: 1 Chirpy