Ade

[Kennington]

Can somebody tell me where we stand with him??

Presumably we are still paying his wages so is he available to at least make the bench or is he completely off the radar as far as the club and AVB are concerned?

If he is it seems such a waste in every respect.

 

[Aco]

I reckon he'll have a better season than last one, though that's not saying much.

In my opinion he was at his best when he was paired up with Defoe, as Ade himself is a lot of responsibility for the defenders, it creates space for the other striker, so I'd like to see what him and Soldado can do together on the pitch, provided that he does something about his form and AVB is willing to try out another formation.

 

[Blake Griffin]

think avb will have him training with the kids or something stupid. personally i hope he plays.

 

[yiddo_4eva]

I'm sure I read some ITK saying he was gone. Has he not then? Strange, the ITK must have been wrong!

Anyway, last I've seen and heard from people I see at WHL is that after his return from compassionate leave, after his brother(?) died, he was then training by himself.

Since then, the majority of training pics I've seen have not appeared to have him in them but considering the transfer window is now shut, I can't imagine he'd be left to just rot on the sidelines and AvB will do what he can to get him to rekindle some of his form from the latter stages of last season.

If that is possible, with him looking to compete with Soldado then we will have a very appealing strike force, and that is of course not forgetting Defoe!

 

[sebcole]

Ade is an absolute nonce. If he picks up his fervour, it won't be for long unless there are wholesale changes inside of his brain.

 

[sundanceyid10]

I reckon he'll have a better season than last one, though that's not saying much.

It would be virtually impossible to have a worse one, he was beyond s**** last season!

 

[g_harry]

Like a lot of our players needs to take more responsibility. That's were I see the difference between us nd arsenal players

 

[mpickard2087]

I'm sure I read some ITK saying he was gone. Has he not then? Strange, the ITK must have been wrong!

Anyway, last I've seen and heard from people I see at WHL is that after his return from compassionate leave, after his brother(?) died, he was then training by himself.

Since then, the majority of training pics I've seen have not appeared to have him in them but considering the transfer window is now shut, I can't imagine he'd be left to just rot on the sidelines and AvB will do what he can to get him to rekindle some of his form from the latter stages of last season.

If that is possible, with him looking to compete with Soldado then we will have a very appealing strike force, and that is of course not forgetting Defoe!

Well he let Alex and Anelka do just that when at Chelsea, so I wouldn't put it past AVB to be honest...

I think he is someone who has a big role to play still, but AVB doesn't see it that way. End of last season we saw an upturn in form and confidence, but he has been put onto the fringes now it seems so we'd be back to square one having to build up his confidence/mentality etc again.

 

[amathews3416]

Major weakness of AVB is his man management skills when it comes to talented players like Ade who are high maintenance. His solution tends to be to remove them from the squad by either moving them on (BAE) or limiting them from contact w/ the first team (Ade). Hope he proves me wrong and finds a way use Ade this year, as I think he can be a massive player for us.

 

[bassman]

Major weakness of AVB is his man management skills when it comes to talented players like Ade who are high maintenance. His solution tends to be to remove them from the squad by either moving them on (BAE) or limiting them from contact w/ the first team (Ade). Hope he proves me wrong and finds a way use Ade this year, as I think he can be a massive player for us.

Got to agree , think some humble pie maybe in need of some baking here but starting to believe only a Mourinho wind up claiming AVB lacks the skill to get him back to his best and playing will resolve this one .
Must admit not happy with his the BAE situation either .

 

[Mullers]

Major weakness of AVB is his man management skills when it comes to talented players like Ade who are high maintenance. His solution tends to be to remove them from the squad by either moving them on (BAE) or limiting them from contact w/ the first team (Ade). Hope he proves me wrong and finds a way use Ade this year, as I think he can be a massive player for us.

It's a fair point, but as Dawson has proved , he is open to change.

 

[Kyle Broflovski]

Ade was off due to a death in his family?
He was putting goals away at the end of last season. AVB has been on record about this and indicated faith in the player and how he's had to train him to adapt to a new style of play.
Trust in EA.

 

[Ironskullll]

Major weakness of AVB is his man management skills when it comes to talented players like Ade who are high maintenance. His solution tends to be to remove them from the squad by either moving them on (BAE) or limiting them from contact w/ the first team (Ade). Hope he proves me wrong and finds a way use Ade this year, as I think he can be a massive player for us.

Some might say it's a major strength. The ability to put the needs of the collective above those of the individual. The ability to focus the maintenance on the areas where it's most likely to be effective rather than at the margins where that decision would be speculative; the ability to recognise the finite nature of any asset, be it the time and effort involved in an approach, or even your own ability to work miracles; the ability to make difficult decisions and to see them through with a steely resolve, not allowing yourself to be distracted by the allure of "what if", when you have bigger fish to fry.

 

[Misfit]

Yes, AVB is the only manager to have a problem with Ade. Never seen a grown man given so much fucking slack in my life. That's not an attack, I'm sure he's a nice enough guy on a personal level and he's obviously very conscious of helping out people in his home country and Africa in general, and he's been through some devastating experiences which I cannot properly relate to etc.

But c'mon. This is nothing new. It was very much to H's credit, and circumstance maybe in part, that he played so well a couple of yrs back. Not sure it automatically makes the, what, 4 or 5 other managers culpable in some way for Ade's piss poor personal discipline as a professional or his bouts of mental fragility. Pre-Togo bus attack or post.

All that said, I very much hope Ade and Andre can get together and work through this as with an Ade approaching even 80% of his potential, we'd have a very strong striking corp. all of a sudden.

And I don't think AVB is such a hardarse either. Daws was given the bum's rush last summer but stayed and quickly proved to Andre that he could serve a purpose in the squad and Andre quickly realised that and changed his opinion sharpish. All very pragmatic and grown up.

AVB no doubt has weaknesses. We all do but the players at this club all need to start taking some personal responsibility. As much as any footballer can anyway. The days of this being a giant crèche have to end if this club is to actually foster the right spirit and mentality within the squad so that we might actually win things again. Hand holding is all well and good but it can't be a full time thing. We've got shit to do here. If Ade makes the effort, he'll get a fair crack of the whip. Look at JD last season. Just about the worst possible striker AVB could wish for in his system but JD worked his nuts off to try and help the team out. And even if his best efforts were still underwhelming at times, you could tell AVB appreciated that a lot.

 

[sundanceyid10]

He was putting goals away at the end of last season.

He scored 5 goals all season, he wasn't putting anything away other than wages. Adebayor has a p*** poor work effort that is not AVB's fault.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Hmm 'work effort ' you say . I remember , even at his least effective ,Ade chasing around and pouring sweat . His probs may be more subtle than just that .

 

[DiscoD1882]

I said this a couple of times last season even before the Bale to Madrid thing kicked off. I think the main reason both Ade and Defoe had bad seasons was down to Bale being moved in to the middle of the park and taking up the space that they usually took. Defoe was on fire at the beginning of the season and his goal dry up coincided with bale moving into the free role. Ade had a great season before when bale was playing on the wing. Hopefully with him gone these guys will be able to find the space again and start bagging them in.

 

[Mr Pink]

To be honest it would be nice if Adebayor could settle down and play a role this season. He shouldn't need to be specially managed. He's 28/29 years old for Christ sake. We aren't talking about some problematic 20 year old.

Its not a case of just saying AVB needs to manager him better. Adebayor needs to show the right attitude first. That's just a prerequisite in my book I'm afraid.

If he doesn't I don't blame AVB for marginalising him. The collective comes before the individual. If AVB is seen to being preferential to some because they are 'difficult' it gives off mixed messages, it could undermine AVB in terms of how he's perceived by the rest of the group.

I'm a believer that all in the group should see the manager always putting the group first. Got to practice what you preach and that should take priority over making special allowances for some high maintenance players which could risk the harmony within the squad.

If I were AVB, I'd have a frank discussion with him and assess his attitude - and then go from there. It would be great if he could knuckle down and play a serious role this season, but he doesn't deserve any kind of special treatment or allowances made for him.

I mean if he's missing training, or turning up late - not good enough.

 

[Shea]

It's a fair point, but as Dawson has proved , he is open to change.

Dawson isn't a high maintanice player though - he was just not in AVB's plans but fought his way back in (well that and got back in due to injuries)

The poster said AVB has a man management weakness when dealing with high maintanice players so Dawson isn't that relevent other than to illustrate AVB will give players opportunities even when they seem frozen out - which wasn't the point the poster made, plus who knows if Dawson would have been afforded such a chance without so many injuries to players ahead of him

 

[Kendall]

Ade is an absolute nonce.

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