so emmanuel adebayor has put pen to paper on a five year contract for manchester city, and i’m a little amazed. not so much that he’s leaving arsenal, because that’s not really surprising at all. i’m shocked with how out of left field this move was, and how quickly it happened.

just a few weeks ago, i wrote about the city’s fascination with signing strikers. both roque santa cruz and carlos tevez have already been introduced at eastlands since that writing. and at the time and until the beginning of this week, it was looking likely that samuel eto’o would be joining the increasingly impressive strike force for the blues. but then that move fell through, despite the world’s highest weakly wages being offered to the cameroon striker. stupid on sammy’s part? depends on what his motivations (and if it was about the coin, then he definitely would have gone to city).

but the minute it was announced that et0’o wasn’t going to make the move, the rumor mill started spinning about adebayor making the switch. i really don’t recall hearing much fodder about city having any interest in him, and then suddenly we were in “advanced negotiations.” wait, what?

yes, this is the same player who scored 61 goals for arsenal over the last three seasons. yes, this is a player that was undoubtably on the radar of a.c. milan and barcelona for the last two years.yes, this is a marquee player from one of the premier league’s “big four.”yes, this is a player who has repeatedly stated that he would want to leave to play for one of europe’s elite clubs.

so, “european power” man city is where he ends up… really?! is he going to be one of like 9 strikers in their starting line-up? not only that, but he’s claiming that city was his “first-choice destination”… i mean come on.

my guess is that this is a move motivated primarily by money. just last summer, manu signed a contract extension with arsenal that doubled his weekly salary to £80,000 per week. arsene wenger sought to appease his start striker by allowing him to earn a similar wage as to what he would earn at one of continental powers. and while there were some who believed that the togo striker’s long-term future was tied to arsenal at that time. however, i’ve always thought that this summer would be very similar, with lots of speculation linking him with another big money move.

and sure enough, he’s moved on to city this week for a reported £130,000 per week. yet, he’s claiming his move was not financially motivated… um, yeah.

so, while one can question adebayor’s motives, many of arsenal’s fans will be happy to see him go. the club’s supporters are typically split regarding their feelings about manu, with many feeling he is uncommitted (well, yeah) and doesn’t put forth a lot of effort (i think this is true, at times).

what will wenger do with his new £25 million from this sale? that’s probably the biggest concern for most of the gunner faithful, and i’m getting the feeling that most of the fans are more than eager for him to spend big on some experienced players. odds are, he won’t do that at all. he will probably end up spending £8 million on some uknown wünderkid that won’t be a world class player for five years.

however, we really need to sit back and take a look at what man city has pulled off in the last month. they’ve signed one of the top holding midfielders in england with gareth barry. they’ve signed two world class strikers in tevez and adebayor. and the third summer striker signing, roque santa cruz, might be at that level if he can get out of the training room. if they add in a quality defender, in john “i hate you” terry or joleon lescott, they could be a solid side.

they’re starting to convince world class players to come to eastlands… but will they be the same pathetic city? not if emmanuel and his “english galacticos” have anything to say about it. this could be an interesting project after all.