To suggest that players joining City lack ambition is about as ludicrous as suggesting that John Terry leaving Chelsea will cost England the World Cup

Manchester City’s summer spending spree has prompted many to suggest that their new acquisitions are motivated by money alone. I couldn’t disagree more. To state that the likes of Gareth Barry, Emmanuel Adebayor and Carlos Tevez lack footballing ambition is ridiculous. Barry, Adebayor and Tevez have joined a club with a short term plan to break up the Big Four’s monopoly on the Champions League places and with a mid term plan to challenge for the Premier League and the Champions League titles. I shudder to think at what the long term plan is, sounds ambitious enough to me. Barry, Adebayor and Tevez have also joined a club who, through the signing of Premier League players such as Barry and the attempt to secure a deal for Terry, have weakened the teams around them. If offered the opportunity to work for a club who have had bids rejected for the England captain John Terry, and as he was in January, World Player of the Year, Kaka, most ambitious players would jump at the chance. Manchester City’s pursuit of John Terry signals a real intent, although Chelsea dismissed reports that Terry might be on his way, I’m positive that we will see a forth approach this week topping £40 million.

There seems to be a widespread ‘how dare they’ attitude to the John Terry bid. Many have pointed out that because Terry wouldn’t immediately be playing Champions League football at City, and that this drop in level would effect his ability to perform as a player and captain of the national side. This simply isn’t the case. To suggest that by playing Champions League football Terry faces world class players week in week out is ridiculous. If we presume that Chelsea will be semi-finalists again this year (because they generally are), let's count the world class opposition. As a top seed Chelsea’s group invariably includes two rubbish teams, from rubbish leagues, with rubbish strikers and one half decent German/Italian/Spanish team, not world class opposition. As group winners they will play the mediocre team who finish second in a group with a similar structure in terms of quality, and again, Terry wouldn’t face world class opposition. Then we have Chelsea’s annual encounter with Liverpool, a team that Terry faces in domestic competition. So a semi-final, and two games against world class opposition -- not really the ‘week in week out’ challenge he needs in a World up year. I’m sure that Terry’s ability will not magically disappear because he doesn’t play two games against Real Madrid or Barcelona. Our national side might even benefit from a captain who isn’t burned out.

So, we come to Adebayor, it has been a week since Arsenal sold him and I seem to be the only disappointed Gooner. Every Arsenal fan I have spoken to seems to think that we have offloaded a poor, lazy player for a huge amount. Let's deal with the facts Adebayor scored 62 goals in 114 starts for Arsenal. Last season Adebayor scored 10 league goals in 21 starts, and 6 in 8 in the Champions League, so that’s 16 in 29 last year, not that bad at all. He scored one less than Robin Van Persie in the Premier League, and Robin was voted Arsenal’s best player last season. Granted Van Persie hit the woodwork 16 times and created the most Premier League goals with 11 assists, but, it has to noted that Adebayor, who was out for a long spell only scored two less than Wayne Rooney, and created the same amount with 7 assists. Wayne Rooney is regarded as the exact opposite of Adebayor by many people, a team player who works hard, as opposed to Adebayor a selfish and lazy individual. Is this the same selfish Adebayor who created as many goals for team-mates as the selfless Wayne Rooney? Is this the same lazy Adebayor who missed a long spell after pulling a hamstring desperately trying to reach a misplaced pass in the North London derby?

In the past four seasons only three players who currently play in the Premier League have scored over 20 league goals in one season. Adebayor is joined on this list by Didier Drogba and Fernando Torres, the two best strikers in the league. If Owen stays fit he is capable of scoring 20+ too, so realistically there are four players who can score over 20 goals this season, and until last week the ‘Big Four’ all had one each. Adebayor has been called a one season wonder by many but he was plagued by injuries last season, as was Torres, yet he was still awarded the plaudits he deserved last term. On paper, Adebayor’s 16 in 29 looks better than Torres’s 17 in 38 last year, if we add to that Adebayor’s 7 assists against Torres’ 5 then Adebayor was worth more goals in less games last season. I am not suggesting that Adebayor is a better striker than Torres, as I feel that Torres is the best in the world, but in the past two years they have had similar scoring records. It’s all there in black and white, yet Torres is lauded whilst Adebayor is criticised. Torres' £25 million fee is regarded as a snip, yet Adebayor has been deemed to be overpriced in an increasingly inflated market. In this market, if Rooney and Torres were to be sold they would cost around £50 million, so is Adebayor really 'over priced' at half this amount?

GoonerDale