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Fire up the transfer rumor klaxon! Several English papers, including the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, are suggesting that none other that Emmanuel Adebayor is the number one target to replace outgoing striker Christian Benteke at Aston Villa.
Just a crazy rumor, right? Maybe not. Consider these tweets:
Official talks between Spurs and Villa set for tomorrow morning re Adebayor. All parties keen, but this will ultimately come down to wages.
— Ben Fairthorne (@BFairthorne) July 19, 2015
The reality is that if Adebayor is to sign for Villa, Spurs will have to give him slight pay off. Levy willing to do so as well.
— Ben Fairthorne (@BFairthorne) July 19, 2015
So of course we shouldn't be surprised by this. After all, our good friend Tim Sherwood is the one who rescued Adebayor from the cold during Sherwood's brief tenure as manager of Tottenham Hotspur last season. And to his credit, Adebayor responded, scoring 14 goals in 25 games under Tactics Tim. It was enough to not only prevent Ade being sold last summer, but to gain him a vice-captaincy, something that he has, by all accounts, thoroughly squandered.
So yes, it's completely natural that Adebayor should be connected to Tim Sherwood now that he has another job. The Mail suggests that Spurs will want £4m for the striker, but is willing to subsidize his £100k/week wages until the end of his existing Tottenham contract. This is also not unexpected, since that's pretty much the exact same deal that Spurs made with Manchester City when they signed Ade a few years back. Since Ade's not signing for less than his full wages, paying, say, £40k/wk for him not to play for Tottenham is a heck of a lot better than paying £100k/wk for him not to play.
On a human level, I ache for what Ade has been through this past season in his personal life. I honestly still like the guy and I hope he lands on his feet and can help his new club, whoever it happens to be. But, he's not going to be playing for Spurs next season, so it's best that he goes, and soon. It's a footballing decision that is long, long overdue.
Letting Tim Sherwood take Adebayor off our hands for us would be amazing. Let's hope that after the departures of Fabian Delph and Christian Benteke he really is that dumb-slash-desperate.