Why Emmanuel Adebayor is disrespecting Arsenal

It is hard to believe that the same player could have said such contrasting things within the space of 24 hours.

Yes, we're back to my current pet topic: Emmanuel Adebayor.

On Tuesday: "I often speak to Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani on the phone because he is very good at French as his wife is from Morocco," Adebayor told Italian newspaper Tuttosport. "Galliani may not be as sexy as Beyonce, but Milan are.

"For now I just want to finish the season on a high, but then we will see. My agent Stephane Courbis is in London with his Italian associate Vincenzo Morabito and they are always working day and night."

On Tuesday night: "Arsenal put me where I am today, They made me one of the biggest strikers in the world. I have to pay them back.

"How am I going to pay them back? Make them win trophies. Thats what I am here for and I have to fight for that. Next season, 100 per cent, I am an Arsenal footballer."

Forgive me if I don't believe a word that comes out of Adebayor's mouth.

On Monday, on the eve of Arsenal's Champions League semi final, Adebayor is talking to an Italian newspaper about his future and the piece appears in Tuttosport on Tuesday.

On Tuesday night after the game and flanked by an Arsenal press officer, Adebayor says quite the opposite.

It reminds me of last summer when Adebayor categorically denied he was ready to leave Arsenal after stories appeared claiming that he wanted a huge new contract and wages to match Thierry Henry's £100,000-a-week contract before he left to join Barcelona.

All the time Adebayor was giving interviews to foreign press confessing his love for Barcelona and AC Milan and was desperate to move to the San Siro.

Then the time Adebayor met Arsene Wenger at the Euros and told the Arsenal manager that he was committed - and then did a round of interviews at an adidas PR event the same day admitting he wanted out.

Normally the big-name player uses his get-out-of-jail-free card by blaming the press for making up stories.

This time, Adebayor got caught with his pants down and was jeered by the Arsenal fans in pre-season and at the start of the Premier League campaign.

Cristiano Ronaldo was also involved in an ugly protracted transfer tug-of-war last summer but Manchester United fans have long since forgiven him because he's so damned good.

Sadly for Adebayor, this season has been a huge disappointment and his form has gone downhill ever since he signed a great big fat contract worth a whopping £80,000 a week.

Adebayor used to be one of the hardest working strikers in the Premier League. He was everywhere. This season, Adebayor has been lazy and he looks like a player who thinks he has made it.

Arsenal fans were outraged by Adebayor's lacklustre performance at Old Trafford in the Champions League semi final first leg. His second leg performance wasn't much better.

I got on the Tube to go to the game on Tuesday night and the two Arsenal fans sitting opposite me were slaughtering Adebayor, criticising his work rate, commitment and lack of goals.

But what is most upsetting for Arsenal is that in all of Wenger's 13 years in charge of the club never has he improved a player more than Adebayor.

Adebayor arrived from Monaco in January 2006 for less than the £7m listed in many statistics books. I know this because Wenger was once asked about the fee and he was outraged, claiming they didn't even pay half that.

He was hopeless. I remember saying at the time that Arsenal should have signed Dean Ashton as at least he could score. But after six months training alongside Henry and Wenger, Adebayor began to show real progress.

In his first full season he scored 12 goals. The next season he scored 30 goals and other clubs started taking notice. This season he has scored 16 goals but his work rate and commitment have been sorely lacking.

Adebayor is the worst kind of example of a foreign mercenary. He has come to Arsenal, Wenger made him into the player he is today and now he starts saying that AC Milan are such a big club, blah, blah, blah.

However, this is a problem that Arsenal have partly brought upon themselves.

They sign a lot of foreign players cheaply, don't pay them huge contracts and then do not get the same loyalty they would expect from a home-grown player.

Mathieu Flamini joined Arsenal in 2004 and the Gunners only had to pay Marseille peanuts in compensation because he was not on a full professional contract at the French club.

Four years later, Flamini, by now a free agent, leaves Arsenal for AC Milan where he has struggled this season to get a regular first team place despite signing an £80,000-a-week contract.

But unfortunately if you live by the sword you die by the sword. Wenger criticised Flamini over his departure, but really what complaint can Arsenal have, having plucked him from Marseille in similar circumstances?

Of course there are exceptions to the rule. Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal at 16 and has turned down numerous overtures from Spain already. Henry grew to love the club and remains fiercely loyal.

I think Adebayor will leave Arsenal this summer. It wouldn't surprise me if before long we see another round of "I'm staying" interviews quickly followed by "Milan/Barcelona/Inter/Real Madrid are great clubs" interviews.

It really is becoming beyond a joke. To talk about AC Milan on the day of a Champions League semi final is so disrespectful.

Last March, Alex Hleb did something similar. The day before Arsenal played AC Milan in the Champions League in the San Siro, Hleb met Inter officials for an "ice cream."

Hleb, of course, joined Barcelona last summer and has barely got a kick this season. He spent last year moaning about London. Now he's making noises about coming back to the Premier League. No thanks, Alex.

This just all goes to show that the modern day footballer is out of touch with fans and are becoming increasingly mercenary and detached from real life.

Read the rest of Crossie's column here - and click here to follow him on Twitter

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