In the summer of 2008 Emmanuel Adebayor seemed indispensable. Not even £30 million seemed enough to prize away a seemingly unfinished article of a centre forward. Instead a £80k a week contract was the only thing which could secure to the Togolese striker’s services. A year on after a lot of hype, opinion has turned on its head.

Adebayor has spent three and a half seasons with the club, scoring 46 goals in the last two, which is actually quite an achievement. It was not just the thirty goals (24 in the Premiership) he scored in the 07/08 season but also his attitude, workrate and endeavour which earned him the majority of the fans’ admiration. The 2008/2009 season promised fans so much from Adebayor yet they were left disappointed. His third place position in Arsenal.com player of season poll spoke volumes for not just the player but for the team as a whole.

Arsenal pretty much overachieved for much of the 2007/2008 season and they had Adebayor to thank for some of this. In that squad it was the fearless but slightly clueless Walcott who was dubbed the heir to the Henry throne by many, but it was Adebayor who was told he would fill Henry’s boots by the man himself. And in time he was the one who got the number 14’s wages if not his shirt number. Adebayor even managed to get himself a song in a culture of Arsenal fans where chants really would be a fine thing. At the Emirates Cup the song which I thought was a fans’ favourite was transformed into: “Give him some dough, and Ade won’t go”. How ironic that seems now as it was only a matter of months before the fans’ subsequent berating targeted at the “overpaid lazy git” echoed from the stands.

Adebayor was what many would call the typical modern footballer. They strive and make every effort to position themselves within the club and with the fans and then in due course they then turn into a lazy, money-grabbing w*****. Arsenal is better off without this sort of player and Adebayor should fit in nicely with Bellamy, Robinho and Benjani. What is even more infuriating is that Arsenal could have used half of Adebayor’s pay packet to top up someone like Flamini’s salary a year ago. Now there was a player who actually cared about results not personal achievement and someone who was willing to spill his guts when things hit the fan instead of moping around.

As long as an acceptable replacement is found Adebayor will not be missed. He has never been the most clinical striker in the world and for such a huge bloke he isn’t even that good in the air. He’s actually scored the majority of his goals with his feet. His goal versus Villarreal was probably the “pass” of the season. What a pass. The finish was good but Peter Crouch can do that and Arsenal needed a lot more last season. Another thing about Adebayor is that he scored the majority of his goals when Fabregas was on the pitch. This is probably the key factor as to why Adebayor “underperformed” last season. Another contender for “pass” of the season was Fabregas’ one which saw Adebayor score against Man City at the tail end of 2008/09.

I have one word which should quell any worry after Adebayor leaves. Ed-uar-do. His statistics are there for all to see. Twelve goals in his first season and that was only by February when he broke his leg. Eduardo is the most clinical striker I have witnessed in an Arsenal shirt since Ian Wright. He possesses the quality that no current players (including Adebayor) aside from Arshavin contain. They both understand that when you see the goal you shoot instead of passing, therefore you score more goals. Crazy, but it got Arshavin player of the season within four months.

Before the Man City bid it seemed that Arsenal were in line to buy another striker - Chamakh of newly crowned champions Bordeaux, or at least so it was rumoured a number of times. Although it appears Chamakh is not yet the regular 30 goal a season man we were expecting Adebayor to become. Wolfsburg striker Dzeko is another rumour. He hit the 30 goal per season mark for the first time last season. However an obvious move would be to bid for the already well established and currently unsettled Klaas Jan Huntelaar of Real Madrid, although he would probably be far too obvious for Wenger.

What finally blew it for Adebayor was the interview he gave to Football Focus towards the end of last season. To me, he basically summarised why many football fans are actually giving up on what was once a working class sport. With a huge pay packet he finally revealed himself. Not only did he accept that his recent performances been substandard but also that he was not willing to maintain his previous performances without the fans’ full support. It does not matter where you stand on the booing debate that seemed to be surrounding The E******s last season, Adebayor did not repay the faith and respect the club’s backroom staff gave him. His performances were deemed unacceptable by many of the 60,000 experts. Therefore, he got booed by some and everybody knows the customer is always right.

Adebayor may have once seemed invaluable but his levels of commitment and attitude have sickened many Arsenal fans. When you’ve saved and budgeted enough money to go watch the Arsenal you expect 110%. Bendtner may be a bit of a laughing stock but at least he never gives up, or at least not as often as Adebayor. After Adebayor’s comments on Football Focus he had to leave. The only reason Gallas did not leave after his comments was because we really couldn’t spare another defender. The only concern I have with Adebayor leaving is whether he scores against us in the Premier League next season. Unfortunately AC Milan weren’t interested after last season’s performances.