Adebayor signing not a Gamble - Pardew

Alan Pardew has dismissed fears that he has
gambled by signing Emmanuel Adebayor, revealing
the controversial striker has signed a performance-
based contract at Crystal Palace.

The former Arsenal, Manchester City, Real Madrid
and Tottenham forward joined Palace on Tuesday
after spending five months as a free agent
following his release by Spurs.

While he has the talent to remain among the
Premier League’s best, his reputation for being
problematic has raised concerns that he may
disrupt what has been a fine season for Palace.

Pardew, though, is adamant he has sufficiently
researched Adebayor’s character and is confident
Palace can benefit the 31-year-old’s career as much
as he can provide them with much-needed goals.

“We’ve incentivised his contract to do that, in
terms of him being a success,” said Pardew, who
accepts the striker remains too short of match
fitness to start against Stoke in the FA Cup fourth
round on Saturday.

“I see in him a desire to get his career back on
track, and I think I can help him. I’m hoping that’s
a win-win situation for him and for us. You cannot
underestimate the quality he has. I’ve tried to sign
him twice before, once at West Ham, when I came
that close, and at Newcastle we talked long and
hard about him.

“He’s a character that needs to be loved and the
group I have, he’s going to get that. For us it’s
about bringing in a striker to give everyone a
boost. We all felt sorry for ourselves, no [Yannick]
Bolasie, Connor [Wickham’s] now suspended, so
it’s great for us.

“You can see in the training ground there’s a lift
already. He’s done the first part of his job because
everybody is really pleased he’s here. The only risk
is if he doesn’t play well. I can’t see any other risk.

I think we discard players quite quickly, and
sometimes too early.

“If you look at Harry Redknapp’s career, he was
very good at regenerating some senior players who
were supposedly at the end of their careers, and
I’ve had a couple of situations like that: Teddy
Sheringham springs to mind, who was playing in
my Premier League team [at West Ham] at the age
of 38.

“You sometimes cannot get the kind of quality that
Adebayor can bring. We’re very fortunate to have
him, I make no bones about that. Our fans should
be very optimistic, because I am.”

Pardew has previously worked with Hatem Ben
Arfa and Carlos Tevez, giving him experience of
other players with difficult streaks, but he has also
been in contact with Tim Sherwood regarding his
success in managing Adebayor at Spurs.

“It’s important to understand the history, talk to
people who have worked with him,” he said.

“Particularly Tim, who’s someone I know well. I
know from Tim that there’s certain things
Adebayor works on, works with, and I’d be foolish
to ignore them, so I’m going to try and help create
an atmosphere here that gives him the best possible
chance of success.

“He didn’t need to come here, the financial deal for
him to stay at home or to be here is probably
exactly the same, so he’s putting himself up and
that fills me with confidence.

“I’ve had messages with Tim, via somebody else,
but I probably will speak to Tim as I go along. If I
can get him anywhere near his best, it’ll be more
than good enough for us.”