Emmanuel Adebayor will be great for a while for Crystal Palace then play like he's 47 - Paul Merson

James Benge28 January 2016

The consensus among leading pundits seems to be that Emmanuel Adebayor may give Crystal Palace a short-term boost but whether he will offer Alan Pardew much in the way of reliability remains in doubt.

Adebayor agreed a five-month deal at Selhurst Park earlier this week, with the 31-year-old desperate to gain redemption in the top-flight after finding himself discarded by Mauricio Pochettino in his final months at Tottenham.

Being on the White Hart Lane scrapheap was a remarkable end for a player who scored 17 goals in 33 appearances in his first season for Spurs. But, as fans of Manchester City and Arsenal will attest, Adebayor has yet to prove himself as a long-term building block for any side.

Pundit Paul Merson has no doubts that Adebayor could shine for Palace in his early games but warned Pardew not to expect him to necessarily expect major output as he settles in to life in south London.

“If Adebayor plays it could be an outstanding signing. He is big, strong, quick and unplayable when he gets going,” he told Sky Sports.

“The problem is that for four weeks he will be like that but then the next four he will be like me at 47. That will be him all over.”

Speaking on Talksport in an interview you can hear below former Arsenal midfielder Ray Parlour suggested that Palace’s new man can provide their attack with the physical presence they’ve been lacking.

“I saw them against Spurs, Connor Wickham didn’t really go for it and maybe Adebayor is the man,” he said.

“It depends what his fitness is like. If it’s long-term there could be some problems but you can’t go wrong if it’s just till the end of the season.”

Adebayor arrives at Palace eight goals short of Didier Drogba’s Premier League goalscoring record for an African player with a haul of 96 in 230 top flight appearances.

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