Making sense of the Bendtner-Adebayor war

A lot has been said about the clash that occurred between Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner towards the end of Arsenal’s 5-1 Carling Cup defeat to Tottenham on Tuesday night. While video replays remain inconclusive as to what actually happened, various reports have mentioned everything from Bendtner stepping on Adebayor’s achilles to Adebayor calling the Dane ‘s**t’ and headbutting him in the face.

Some articles paint Bendtner as the villain, some Adebayor, whilst one even suggested that the Togolese man has an instense dislike for his teammate that has been waiting to explode for some time (take two guesses to figure out who that one was *cought* Tribal Football *cough*).

The clash between Bendtner and Adebayor should never have happenedSo what do I make of it, I hear you ask? It’s hard to say. On one hand you have an incident where two players have done something that should never really happen on a football field, but on the other hand it’s virtually impossible to know what actually happened.

All the reports in the world really amount to nothing because only Bendtner and Adebayor and perhaps William Gallas and the manager know what has occurred and it’s firmly the club’s responsibility to take care of the situation. Yesterday I demanded that an apology be made by either player and I was happy to see that Adebayor was intelligent enough to issue one.

“I am sorry for the disagreement with my team-mate Nicklas. We are both passionate about this club and sometimes that can be projected in the wrong way. It was a mistake.”

Whether or not he speaks the truth or not is irrelevant, that he has issued some sort of an apology in the media spotlight is all that matters to the club at this point. It is now up to the two players involved as well as Arsene Wenger to deal with the issue away from the media, something that can now be done in a little more peace following Adebayor’s apology.

From what I can gather about everything I have seen from the two players and the situation, my gut feeling is that the two players have a little bit of a personality clash and as a result of the less than perfect atmosphere out on the pitch it escalated.

For all of the comments that Arsenal supporters may have made over the past day or so about the result of the game not being important it’s clear that Adebayor and Bendtner felt that it was, or else the altercation would never have occurred. The words of captain Gallas at the end of the match back this point up quite clearly.

Wenger has often used the reason in the past that Bendtner and Adebayor cannot play together because they are too similar, but perhaps what he really means is that they simply do not get along. Who knows? What really matters is that Wenger and the two players work out a solution that benefits the team and allows the entire club to turn the focus back on the weekend FA Cup clash with Newcastle United.

What do you think?

Have your say on the Bendtner-Adebayor clash by leaving a comment.

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Comments

  1. Wenger is an excellent man-manager and will definately sort out this situation… there was a similar incident (although not as explosive) between Overmars and Anelka during the season of Wenger’s first double, and Wenger managed to resolve it internally and still managed to deliver 2 trophies as well… lets hope this continues.

  2. I’m confident Wenger can straighten things out between the players. There are always going to be squad members who don’t get along with some as well as with others.

    However, I AM definitely worried about two things:

    First, for the long term: Bendtner has been in too many of these personality scrapes for a 20-year-old guy. He had a dust-up of some kind with Gravesen while on duty with the Danish team. And we CERTAINLY don’t need this public shouting from Bendtner’s father (and agent), who has called Adebayor “mad” and demanded punishment for him. Bendtner St. could be a major pain in the arse and ultimately push his son to be equally obnoxious.

    Eventually, at a club like Arsenal with plenty of talent available, you can’t afford to keep somebody who has enemies throughout the team.

    Now, for the short term: The disgusting FA just loves to stick its nose into things like this and — despite the fact that there is NO clear video evidence of anything — I would bet a month’s salary that they slap Ade with a three-game suspension for violent conduct at the very worst time it could happen to us.

    Maybe they’ll ring Sir Purple Nose for his opinion. It’s not out of the question. (And Alex can suggest they toss Bendtner for three games, as well. Maybe Gallas, too.)

    It would be absurd for either player to be disciplined by the FA. There’s no evidence, we’ve had an apology (however sincere it was…) and this clearly should be an internal matter for the club.

    But remember the FA.

    Have we EVER gotten any justice from them?

  3. We dont need bendtners father saying that as a club but it has to be sayed. Ade was out of line and he knows it. It fucked up our concetration and Ade has to pay. he added onto ma misery yesterday as though losing wasnt enough. Guys would u stop using that excuse that Ade is our top scorer to blind all the wrong this guy is doin? I think he feels he is our main man. I hate that. I hated it when Henry was, i hated it when fab was turning out to be that and now i hate it thatits getting to Ade’s head. we need a team not individual star performers

  4. The only comment I would like to add is in contradiction of Andrew´s saying that AW is an excellent man-manager. I think that he gives the impression of being too soft, too kind with the players. Perhaps he should take a leaf from Fergie´s book and give them a real rollicking now and again.

  5. Thats not Wenger. He buys personality. If he is wrong about u. Well ask Diarra. So he lets u express yoself such is the football we play. He also knows what goes on in the players private lives. That is good man management

  6. on the surface it looks like Adebayor is the guilty one but I’ve blamed Bendtner for the escalation I’m not talking about who started it. On the footage it appears Adebayor has been critical of Bendtner and Bendtner reacted, in my opinion he shouldn’t. These things go on all the time between team-mates on the field but they don’t square up to each other.Gallas tried to stop Bendtner but he won’t let it drop. its a typical reaction from a very hot headed young enexperienced player. I put it down to one thing Bendtner was not happy with himself because of the own goal, it played on his mind a lot during the game. Against Everton he lost the plot and was sent off. Its very simple he needs to calm down. Defenders will harass him and he doesn’t seem to like it.Adebayor shrugs off all the harassement and the abuse he gets from defenders so maybe Bendtner should learn a thing or 2 from him.

  7. If the FA DO stick their noses into this, maybe they could take a look at the Spurs yobs, who were throwing stuff at Fabregas. Those “fans” should be banned and their club should be fined.

  8. fair enough a few of us are still seething from that result the other day and the whole fall-out of Ade n Bendtner (embarassing)why cant we jus lose without some added drama???

    when u down(n i am after that shit i saw the other day) u start throwing the blame around and um not afraid to admit that thats what um going to do in this post.

    i dont think Wenger is a good man-manager after all,you can only look at his abilty to build a Squad we dont have a professional squad we jus have mostly young players that have been given a chance to shine and have done that,fair enough but i think he and his team are good at spotting talent and not actually that great at convincing players at their peak to take a punt at Arsenal except if its the last minute of a transfer window and there not too many options (Gallas).

    i can only think of Edu and how he left even with the knowledge of Vieira leaving he still left and another Diarra we can all say how he is bad for moral and all that rubbish but i u could say the same about Bendtner’s arrogance but he is still around,he couldnt hold onto a 23yr old French international fringe player…where is the man management there????the player he has finally held onto is Gilberto and look at how great thats turning out for us.

    we need to look at things the way they are and stop sugar-coating things for ourselves, we havent won anything in a while and last night i saw Chelsea take the cup so seriously becoz if u win enough times it starts to become a culture and once u taste it u will always want it cant say the same about us um afraid.

    all these youngsters will grow up and we will be found out again coz OUR MANAGER IS NOT THAT GOOD A MAN-MANAGER!

    no one learnt from their mistakes against Tiny Tots.The team was supposed to up their game that would have shown they had learnt sumthing..and Wenger should have learnt that it was a stage too far for the kids and jus stopt being BLOODY ARROGANT…

    There u go…but still not feeling better.

  9. I fully support Olgitgooner’s comments. FA should look at the fans who taunted Fabresgas. Adebayor is right to apologize but for Bendtner he needs to change or leave the club since his negativity will not help the team.

    Arsene will resolve this crisis and Arsenal will be back on track to win the Premier League.

  10. i think a suspension of ADE or BENDT are the last things arsenal would want right know ,with RVP who is out right now,both made a mistake bckoz no matter how big was the probleme the shouldn’t reacted like that;what is not fair is to blame the wolle thing on ADE becoz we never gonna know what really happen;i’m sorry to say this but if it was BENDT who hit ADE it shouldn’t be a big story like that;they beleive ADE is guilty just decoz hes African and is not fair

  11. I am less inclined to think the FA is going to suspend any of the two, simply because it will appear to have played mostly into Chelsea & Man U adv. It might be fine for the club and warnings. Remember West Ham last year, they opted for financial punishment rather than affect the relegation status.

  12. bendtner showed a trace of dissent to Gallas as well. you cld see that, the way gallas was addressing him. a youngster like him ought to be less egoistic. the best way he could have vented it cold have been to show some aggression in his game. the way we have seen fabregas and gallas do in the past.

    I am with Ade.. if i had to take sides. but for club’s sake would choose to stay quiet.

  13. JUST IN: Both Emmanuel Adebayor and Nicklas Bendtner escape any FA censure. They both are very lucky however the FA will write to both players informing them of their responsibilties.

  14. Having seen some fairly inconclusive youtube evidence, it is not clear if Bendtner provoked Adebayor at all. This is strange behaviour from Ade as he is generally perceived as being a happy go lucky kind of player with a great attitude. Bendtner seems to me to be driven and competitive.

    However, it is clear that violently attacking your own team is not on, and while both players should be chastisted for this incident, Adebayor’s behaviour is fairly inexcusable.

    This could be a big turning point for the season. An unhappy team does not play well – this could be the frustration of not having played terribly well over the last month.

  15. I hope you don’t prove to be right. I would hate something so silly to derail all the progress the boys have made.

    I’m disappointed in Adebayor but I’m sure there’s more to it than we know at this stage.

  16. Here is some news for the gloomy Gooners. Flamini will sign for Arsenal this is what he said “Arsenal is my priority and I hope that everything gets sorted out because I love this club – the atmosphere is amazing, the new stadium, the supporters, everything.
    “We are creating a new story here and I want to be part of that story.”

    After seeing Hoyte against the spuds it was so bad now I feel the return of Senderos is good news I never thought I’ll feel like that about him. HURRY UP KOLO !
    The first 15 minutes of next game will be a nervy one as the players want to settle and get back to what they do best. We will be back on tarck. Cheer up Goooooners

  17. CASICKY – ur comment on wenger is bull!we all know tht wenger was very very clear about playing a majorly youthful squad 4 th carling n though a win would have been a boost it wasn’t th clubs 1st priority… On th adebayor n nicklas issue i really doubt tht adebayor just decided to ‘headbutt’ nicklas 4 no reason but for th sake of th club which to me is greater than any individual, th main agenda should be to reconcile th players n not to shift blame as nicklas’dad seem to fancy

  18. While its hard to know who is at fault, I suspect cocky sulking Bendtner is at least equal in the blame game. Bendtner had a dust up with Gravesen when playing for Denmark.

    Bendtner thinks he should be starting, and Adebayor is on pace for a 30 plus goal season. If he did rake Adebayors Achilles as was reported by some papers, its hard to imagine that not producing a reaction.

  19. I think it is good that an apology was issued if for no other reason that the news needed to be buried in the media, else they inflate it to be a bigger deal than it really is.

    Interesting to see how Wenger handles this internally (though I doubt we would see it). Wenger is a supreme motivator and tactician but man manager – I know nothing of his record here.

    Anyone know if he ever had to deal with any team troubles pre-Arsenal?

    Chris
    http://www.EliteSoccerCoach.com

  20. ” Comment by Jay: I don’t really know what happened and so I cannot comment.”

    Yet, you did.

    Bendtner rules. He’s a viking, and anyone that gets in his way will feel the boot!

  21. I’m reading these comments over a year later and wonder how many of you bashing Bendtner are ready to apologize to him knowing that it was in fact Adebayor who was the instigator and the crybaby to start this mess in the first place.

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