Emmanuel Adebayor has recently spoken about the poisonous atmosphere around White Hart Lane at the moment, with pressure being piled on to the players as results continue to disappoint. He even suggested the team would prefer to play away from the Spurs public eye, claiming away matches are easier to play. By Richard Waterhouse.
Emmanuel Adebayor has split opinion during his time in the English Premier League due to his inconsistent form and outrageous moments, but the Tottenham forward is one of the most talented African strikers in the top flight.
The 30-year-old Togo international has spent most of his career in England, in particularly in London, but has also played alongside Real Madrid’s ‘Galacticos’.
It was at Arsenal where he became an idolised figure after showing great goal-scoring prowess. But the fans turned on him after his move to Manchester City, when he showed no remorse. Following his switch, when the two sides met up for the first time, he sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate a goal he had scored for City in front of the Arsenal supporters.
In that same match he was accused of deliberately kicking former team-mate Robin van Persie in the head.
Adebayor arrived in the Premier League after completing a move from Monaco to Arsenal for GBP7 million where he had impressed in the French league, scoring 18 goals in 61 appearances. However, he looked to be forced out of the club after reportedly missing several training sessions towards the end of his stay.
Despite these reports, Wenger was keen to bring the striker in as he felt he possessed the qualities that would suit the team, comparing him to former Gunners striker, Kanu. “He has qualities we don’t have in the side. He is tall, good in the air and makes good runs.” Wenger explained.
After signing on January 13, Adebayor went on to make his debut against Birmingham in early February and he scored his first goal after 21 minutes. He finished the campaign with four goals from 10 games.
Adebayor went on to score 46 goals in 86 games for Arsenal but was unfortunately not rewarded with any silverware as Wenger’s Arsenal ran into a trophy drought. Still he was attracting a lot of interest from clubs around Europe, including AC Milan and Barcelona, who are believed to have prepared a GBP21 million bid for the striker.
In the end, the forward ended up signing for Manchester City in the summer of 2009 for a fee in the region of GBP25 million. During his time at Eastlands, the City forward scored 15 goals and made just 27 appearances in three years. He also had a four-month loan stint in Real Madrid.
In January 2011, due to Jose Mourinho’s lack of faith in Karim Benzema, the Portuguese boss brought in the services of the ex-Gunner, who was subject to a pay cut. He was used to solve what was a striking problem at Real Madrid. Although he spent just a matter of months in the Spanish capital, Adebayor managed to score five goals in 14 appearances for ‘El Blancos’.
Adebayor then went out on another loan spell to the Gunners’ rivals Tottenham which again agitated Arsenal fans. Once more he showed promise in his loan spell from 2011 after scoring 17 goals in a single season in the league which led to a GBP5 million permanent move to White Hart Lane.
During this loan switches period, Adebayor was in the midst of a fatal ambush in 2010 at the time of the African Cup of Nations. The Togo team bus was attacked by gun men and the incident wounded nine people including two players. Adebayor claimed it was “one of the worst experiences of my life.” He decided to retire from international football following this tragedy but he then returned to international duty in November 2011.
Under the last three Spurs managers, Andre Villas Boas, Tim Sherwood and Mauricio Pochettino, Adebayor has been the central force of the Tottenham attack having finished the 2013/14 campaign in double figures again after netting 14 times to add to the 17 he scored the year before.
In the latest league campaign, Spurs and Adebayor are struggling as the forward has scored just two goals from 12 games. The striker has recently spoken about the poisonous atmosphere around White Hart Lane at the moment with pressure being piled on to the players as results continue to disappoint. He even suggested the team would prefer to play away from the Spurs public eye, claiming away matches are easier to play.
Tottenham are in need of a restructure despite their famous haul of signings in 2013 but Adebayor could remain the centre piece of the attack having lived up to his attacking talents with 31 goals from two seasons. Adebayor is married and has a four-year-old daughter named Kendra.
© PA Sport
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