Congratulations Ade. Your achievement is monumental. Not for your classless debacle last summer where you openly flirted with other clubs and annoyed us all (I actually wrote a piece after the Emirates Cup game against Madrid last year saying we should lay off the boos for everyone's benefit) nor for last season's lazy, petulant display or for the fact you are now the Premiership's highest-paid player despite not being the best player in the league by a long shot. No, your achievement lies in singlehandedly making yourself one of the most despised players in the eyes of Gooners and many other fans. Within the space of a year and a bit, you have excelled the likes of Cashley and even Teddy Sheringham.

Sheringham had to work very hard throughout his career to make himself despised by Gooners. Having grown up a Spurs fan, playing for them and United, scoring his fair share of goals against us and revelling in it when he did made him a classic figure of contempt amongst Gooners everywhere.

I'm not even going to go into the reasons why Cashley is so disliked as that has been gone through a thousand times but the way he chickened out of playing at Ashburton Grove and the Carling Cup with mythical injuries such as a hurt leg or whatever it was in his first season at Chelsea certainly added to the already-intense dislike. But he is more of an Anakin Skywalker type figure- a golden boy with great potential who turned to the dark side. And to be fair to Cashley, whatever off-field issues there were with him in his last year or so he still showed a degree of professionalism on the pitch up until his last game in Arsenal colours which is more than can be said for Adebayor. Whether Cole follows Skywalker's example and redeems himself by throwing his master (that parasitic agent of his) down a huge well remains to be seen but it's a nice thought at least.

On the subject of hate figures, I suppose Van Nistelroy deserves a mention, although last time he played against Arsenal (in that same game against Madrid last summer) Philippe Senderos kept him in his pocket so some might argue that Arsenal had the last laugh in that respect and that was humiliation enough for the horse-faced one.

But in the space of one year Adebayor has risen above those three who have earned the dislike of Gooners over the years. There was the stamp on Van Persie, a player who basically did the work for both of them last season, the long sprint to celebrate in front of travelling Gooners (he ran more in that instance than he did over the whole course of last season), the early stamp on Cesc's ankle, not to mention the fact that even Craig Bellamy showed more class than him which says everything really.

But whilst City look dangerous, I have a feeling it won't last. Steve, my Man City-supporting workmate, does not like the fact that someone who spent the majority of his career (and by far his best years) in United red is managing his beloved Citeh and I doubt he's alone in that opinion. When he asked me how I'd feel if Sheringham became Arsenal manager I couldn't help but sympathise with him.

He's one of the most overrated managers ever - being half-Welsh myself (anyone who knows my full name knows I have definite Welsh credentials which is more that can be said for Andy Townsend's, ahem, 'Irish' credentials) I have always kept half an eye on the Welsh national team. And that famous 2-1 win over Italy aside, he wasn't that great for Wales. He had a side with the best chance of qualification for a major tournament in a long time and he blew it big time.

At City, he has a lot more egos to manage (one in particular) and given his United past I have a feeling it won't take long for fans to turn on him if results go badly and sooner or later he'll be collecting his P45. But fair play to him for building a career off a single result I suppose. As for Ade, he'll probably get his comeuppance sooner or later. He's only at City because the likes of AC Milan and Barcelona were put off by his over-inflated ego and ridiculous wage demands. Here's hoping Senderos keeps him in his pocket in the home game when Arsenal get revenge at Ashburton Grove later this season.