Adebayor demands an £80,000-a-week deal from Arsenal and threatens to quit if he doesn't get it
Arsene Wenger fears his young
Arsenal team are in danger of breaking
up after it emerged that Emmanuel
Adebayor has demanded £80,000 a
week to stay at the club.
The 24-year-old striker signed a new contract
last summer worth a weekly £35,000, but he has
told Wenger he wants to be paid in line with the
top players in the Barclays Premier League.
The manager fears a salary and transfer explosion
this summer, with Manchester United,
Chelsea and Liverpool expected to spend
upwards of £50m each on top-class signings.
Despite claiming he can compete with United
and Chelsea on the field over the next few years,
Wenger has privately expressed fears that
Arsenal will soon be too far behind the top
teams in financial terms.
Mathieu Flamini became the first to walk out
when he agreed a move to AC Milan earlier in the week, turning down Arsenal's
£55,000-a-week offer, and it is feared
others may follow.
Alexander Hleb is
determined to move to Inter Milan
in the summer and Jens Lehmann
has played his last game.
Adebayor, after suffering an initial
knockback, is expected to make
more noises following Sunday's final
game of the season at Sunderland.
His agent Stephane Courbis said:
'Now is not the time to talk about his
contract. We'll wait until next week.'
Hleb's agent Nikolai Shpilevski said
last night: 'Alexander is preparing to
make one of the most important
moves of his life. He is leaving
Arsenal even though they want to
offer him a new long-term contract
and better conditions. There's no
way back now.'
Wenger claimed his current team
could eclipse the 2004 'Invincibles',
but Arsenal are falling behind the
top clubs in Europe in terms of
transfer fees and salaries.
Despite claims from former chief executive
Keith Edelman that the manager has
a pot of gold at his disposal, it is
thought Wenger's hands are tied in
the transfer market, largely due to
the crippling cost of their two-yearold
Emirates Stadium.
All that could be solved if the club
were to accept the help of Russian
billionaire Alisher Usmanov, but
chairman Peter Hill-Wood and
director Danny Fiszman say no.
Arsenal, along with Chelsea, have
been offered the chance to sign
Thierry Henry, but Wenger has
turned down the opportunity.
Henry was deemed a 'special case'
when he signed a contract worth
£130,000 a week at the Emirates in
the aftermath of the defeat in the
2006 Champions League final, but
Arsenal are no longer in a position to
pay that kind of figure.
Chelsea, who bid £50m for Henry
when Roman Abramovich arrived in
English football, also considered
taking him back from Barcelona but
have decided against it.
He should go and suck a horse dick
