Arsenal face a battle to hang on to Emmanuel
Adebayor as speculation increases that he has instructed his agent
to facilitate a move to AC Milan. The Togo international has
already begun talks with the Premier League club about a new
contract that would improve the terms of his existing £2
million-a-year deal, which runs until 2012.
Further discussions are planned in the next few weeks
but reports in Italy suggest that Adebayor will use the next
meeting to tell the club, via his French agent Stephane Courbis,
that he would like to move to the San Siro.
The Italian giants have been very public in their
pursuit of the striker, with club sources suggesting that they are
willing to pay £32 million for
a player who scored 30 goals last season. "We wrote to Arsenal to
ask about the availability of Emmanuel Adebayor, but we didn't get
a reply," admitted Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani, who has
Adebayor top of his shopping list along with Chelsea's Didier
Drogba and Barcelona's Samuel Eto'o.
While Adebayor has given mixed messages about his
future, Arsene Wenger is adamant that the striker will not be sold.
"They just have to call me and they will get the answer they
deserve," the Arsenal manager said.
Meanwhile, Arsenal's search for a chief executive has
taken a twist with their demand for a skilled networker who can
help kill off Fifa's controversial 'six-plus-five' principle.
The club view the proposal of Fifa president Sepp
Blatter, which would limit the number of foreign players in a team
to five, as a potential "disaster", given the continental
composition of Wenger's squad.
Although the European Commission say Blatter's vision
is discriminatory and illegal, it appeared to move a step closer
following the overwhelming backing of football's world governing
body in Sydney a fortnight ago.