Emmanuel Adebayor signs for Manchester City

Arsenal Striker Emmanuel Adebayor has completed a £25 million move to the Eastlands. He has signed a five-year contract with Manchester City after successfully completing his medical earlier today. Adebayor had been with the Gunners since 2006 after transferring from Ligue 1 side Monaco for £7 million.

The Togo striker is looking confidently forward to the new challenge at Manchester City, “I was born to play football and that is what I want to do. I have come here to make history for this club and those supporters.” Adebayor adds to the list of big name signings at Man CIty this summer joining the likes of Roque Santa Cruz (£18m), Gareth Barry (£12m) and Carlos Tevez (£25m). After the acquisition of Adebayor Manchester City now have seven quality strikers, Bellamy, Robinho, Bojinov, Benjani, Santa Cruz and Tevez. The Club has done well buying strikers but their attempts to bolster their defense this summer have been unsuccessful, with their bids for Chelsea captain John Terry and Everton’s Joleon Lescott being rejected.

Arsenal have been rumoured to been on the hunt for a replacement for Adebayor, with interest in Real Madrid’s Huntelaar and Bordeaux’s Chamakh. Arsene Wenger denied many transfer rumours but did not rule out signing another striker, "We’re not on the verge of signing anybody but I’m able to spend the money if we find the right players,” he said.” The Arsenal boss remains confident of Arsenal’s attack without Adebayor, he told the BBC, “we have Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo back so we’ve lost a big striker but have gained two offensive players who were absent last season. We also have Nicklas Bendtner, Andrey Arshavin, Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott who can play striker. We have top players we can use as strikers.”

City boss Mark Hughes believes that that Adebayor will bring a new dimension to the team, and he told the BBC, “along with the other signings we have made in the last two windows [Adebayor] will greatly enhance our ability to compete with the top sides.”

Adebayor’s signing has brought Manchester City’s summer spending to around £80 million.