Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear Emmanuel Adebayor is not part of his plans. Jan Kruger / Getty Images
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear Emmanuel Adebayor is not part of his plans. Jan Kruger / Getty Images
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear Emmanuel Adebayor is not part of his plans. Jan Kruger / Getty Images
Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino has made it clear Emmanuel Adebayor is not part of his plans. Jan Kruger / Getty Images

Sport

‘He is not in my plans for the future of Tottenham’: Pochettino spells it out for Adebayor

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has told Emmanuel Adebayor he has no future at the London club after the Togo striker turned down a chance to leave in the recent transfer window.

Reuters

September 12, 2015

  • English
  • Arabic

Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has told Emmanuel Adebayor he has no future at the London club after the Togo striker turned down a chance to leave in the recent transfer window.

Adebayor rejected moves to Aston Villa and West Ham United and Pochettino told reporters on Friday that the striker, who has been left out of Tottenham’s Premier League and Europa League squads, was unlikely to play again.

The languid forward earns around £5 million (Dh28.3m) a year according to media reports and is now set to pick up his pay cheque despite playing no role in the team.

“I was very clear with him, we had a conversation before the end of last season and I explained my idea,” Pochettino said.

“I don’t need to explain much more, I think it is clear he is not in my idea, in my mind or in the plans for the future of Tottenham.

“In football it is about the present and tomorrow, it is not about yesterday. In football it all runs quick and changes everyday, the more important thing is that I was clear with him and clear with the situation.”

Predictions: Eden Hazard and Pedro help Chelsea thrash Everton; Benteke scores against Manchester United

Adebayor has also fallen out of favour with Togo coach Tom Saintfiet, who likened him to a bad date and said this week that the 31-year-old had failed to respond to a call-up for an African Nations Cup qualifier.

“If you are dating a woman who does not want to respond positively, then you must look for another woman,” Saintfiet said.

“For me, it is clear that he is a player who does not want to play for his country any more.”

Tottenham have endured a poor start to the campaign, drawing three of their first four games to leave them 16th in the standings.

They visit Sunderland on Sunday still searching for their first victory of the season.

Pochettino could hand a debut to Son Heung-min who joined from Bayer Leverkusen in August and scored a hat-trick for his country South Korea during the international break.

“Son scored three goals in his game for the national team and arrived on Monday and trained very well all week,” Pochettino said of the 23-year-old.

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE

Jebel Ali Dragons 26 Bahrain 23

Dragons
Tries: Hayes, Richards, Cooper
Cons: Love
Pens: Love 3

Bahrain
Tries: Kenny, Crombie, Tantoh
Cons: Phillips
Pens: Phillips 2

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

While you're here