Peter Hill-Wood has been speaking to the Daily Telegraph, following on from the weekend’s Arsene comments in the News Of The World, specifically about Adebayor and Hleb.

Of Adebayor, he said

We want him to stay, definitely. Adebayor still has a long time [three years] left on his contract, and we have absolutely no intention of releasing him from that contract. You want to keep your best players and Adebayor is one of those

From a footballing point of view, it would be good for the team were he to stay. Despite the personnel issues he might bring, next season ought to see some improvement to his game on last especially as he will (hopefully) be under pressure from a fully-fit Eduardo and Robin van Persie. Last term, due to injuries, Adebayor was relied upon too much at times for goals. If Arsene can have a fit forward line to choose from, the dependency shown in the latter stages of the season could be eradicated. Once more though it will be up to the midfield to contribute more goals than they have for the last few years.

Hill-Wood reinforced Arsene’s view that the number of football mercenaries is increasing

I’m afraid that’s the way of the world. It’s annoying, but it is modern football. The idea that you are going to have a number of your team playing for you for 15 years, as one used to have, has disappeared.

The situation with Adebayor is nothing new in terms of players wanting to leave with seemingly substantial amounts of time on their contracts remaining; it is the sport itself that is unique in how it handles transfers and registrations. It seems that this anachronism is heading for a Bosman-style challenge in the not-too-distant future except this time, instead of two minor European clubs, it will probably involve one of the bigger clubs such is their voracious appetite for having the star players wear their shirts.

Despite its protestations, football is not a unique industry in itself other than to charge new employers a fee for securing their employees services. With European policitians and bureaucrats intent on harmonising the law to level the playing field for all workers, they may well target transfer fees in their next foray into the footballing world. Other than perpetuation of the system, there is no real rationale for keeping these fees. To some extent, there is an argument for allowing the retention of the formulaic system applied to young players, required to ensure that the Academy system flourishes rather than dying on it’s feet. For older players? Football puts no more effort into training them skills-wise than other industries so why the fees?

Back to PHW and Arsenal. He appears to have given up hope for Alexander Hleb though, at a time when his Agent has decided to follow The Four Seasons advice and believe that “Silence is Golden”,

Hleb has made it clear he wants to go. I think maybe he will go

A pity for Hleb that the initial interest in him has, publicly at least, been subdued by the Adebayor headlines. One for the Adebayor-bashers though,

According to Arsenal sources, Wenger feels Adebayor became increasingly big-headed following his run of success last season, and the manager worried that the striker could become a disruptive influence in the dressing room. There is also concern within the club about the 24-year-old’s footballing intelligence, after he was flagged for offside more than any other player in the Premier League last season

Away from that, a major surprise in the top fifty with Pat Jennings coming in at Number Ten. There’s a political joke in there somewhere but alas time precludes its inclusion.

’til Tomorrow.