Togolese played under Wenger with great success for three years between 2006 and 2009.
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Arsenal head coach Arsene Wenger is said to be mulling over making a sensational bid to bring Tottenham Hotspur front man Emmanuel Adebayor back to the Emirates when winter transfer window opens again for business finally in the new year.
It is an open secret in north London that the Gunners will dip into the market at the turn of the year, as the Frenchman looks to maintain the club’s brilliant start to the new season both at home and in Europe.
And the one area that the Arsenal manager is said to be desperate to strengthen is up front at the Emirates, with Wenger currently having to rely on just one fit out-and-out centre forward in the form of France international Olivier Giroud.
The club can, if needs be, call on the likes of German forward Lukas Podolski and England wide man Theo Walcott in emergencies to cover for Giroud, although even those two players are currently out injured in any case.
All of which means that Wenger has already made up his mind that he will be signing an experienced forward in January to both help with Giroud’s current workload, as well as also playing alongside the striker if the situation dictates.
The final straw for Wenger reportedly came when he handed Denmark international Nicklas Bendtner a rare outing in attack in place of Giroud for the north Londoners’ recent Capital One Cup fourth-round clash with arch-rivals Chelsea at the Emirates, only for the marksman to spectacularly fail to grab his chance in a woeful display up front as the home side exited the competition 2-0.
And that led Wenger to hold immediate face-to-face talks with Arsenal chief executive Ivan Gazidis about the club’s recruitment plans for the new year, with the manager making it clear that their number priority for the winter window had to be the addition of a new front man.
However, the pair also decided not to pursue their long-running and much-publicised pursuit of coveted Liverpool forward Luis Suarez, who Wenger chased throughout the summer transfer window, only for the Gunners to see two big-money bids for the Uruguay international be rejected out of hand by the Merseyside giants.
Consequently, the Frenchman does not want to go through another long and drawn-out chase for Suarez in January, especially with his club so adamant that they will not allow their star man to depart Anfield under any circumstances whatsoever.
And that has therefore forced Wenger to shift his attacking focus elsewhere, although the Arsenal boss is also highly conscious of the fact that being able to land attractive targets who are not only available to play in the Uefa Champions League, but whose clubs are also willing to allow them to depart, remains a desperately hard task indeed in January.
But that has led the Frenchman to make recent inquire about the possibility of re-signing former attacker Adebayor from city-rivals Tottenham, especially considering the fact that the Togo international would tick both of the above boxes after having not featured for his club under head coach Andre Villas-Boas so far in this campaign.
As a result, the 29-year-old would be available to play in the club’s Uefa Champions League campaign, which will get under way again in February with the knockout fixtures, while Spurs are also believed to be desperate to offload the player from their pay roll after the front man was made to train with the club’s reserves and youth-team players of late.
The tall Togo striker spent three years at Arsenal of course after Wenger brought the player to the Premier League in January 2006 from Ligue 1 giants AS Monaco for a transfer fee of just £3 million.
And the forward was a huge success at Arsenal under Wenger’s management, even finding the back of the net on an impressive 30 occasions in total in just 48 matches in all competitions in the 2007-08 campaign, before deciding to quit the club in search of the riches on offer at big-spending rivals Manchester City in July 2009.
However, in spite of the subsequent bad blood amongst the Gunners fans about the manner of Adebayor’s departure to Eastlands, it is understood that Wenger himself has still maintained a high regard for the player, who undoubtedly played the best football of his career in his three years under the Frenchman.
So much so, that both parties see this simply as a marriage of convenience, with Wenger hoping that a simple change of environment may help to kick-start the Togolese’s faltering career at the top level again, especially after the traumatic loss of his brother earlier this summer.
And with Adebayor’s current contract at White Hart Lane now only running until June 30 2015, it is not expected that there will be any problems when it comes to negotiating the departure of Adebayor at the turn of the year, especially with Villas-Boas and Spurs so keen to be rid of the player.