Emmanuel Adebayor, braced for a hot reception from travelling Arsenal fans at the City of Manchester Stadium today, took the hostilities a stage farther last night.
The Togo player, who left the Emirates Stadium under a cloud this summer, hit out at the London club’s supporters last night. “Arsenal have a lot of fans who are not fans,” he said. “What is good is that the City fans truly love you.
“Arsenal have fans from America and Jamaica. Today they are Arsenal fans, tomorrow they will be Liverpool fans and after tomorrow they will be Manchester United fans.”
In a direct reference to the breakdown in relations between him and the Arsenal fans towards the end of last season, the striker added: “If you boo your player every weekend, I am very sorry, you are not true fans.”
Adebayor, who was accused of pursuing a lucrative deal elsewhere by some Arsenal supporters, maintained that he had wanted to stay but that the club had decided otherwise.
“Arsenal forced me out,” he said. “I told Arsène [Wenger, the Arsenal manager], ‘No matter what you do, I will not leave the club.’ Arsène told me, ‘You have to leave because financially we are very bad.’ That makes it more painful. Arsène knows I didn’t leave for money. Enjoying my football is more important to me than money.”
Adebayor has made an impressive start for his new club, scoring three goals in four games and faces the chance to enhance his reputation with his new club with today’s game followed by the Manchester derby against United tomorrow week and Mark Hughes, the City manager, is convinced the “upset” Arsenal supporters have caused Adebayor has served only to strengthen the Togo striker’s desire to torment his former club this afternoon and other defences for the rest of the season.
Hughes suggested that Wenger’s knowledge of the striker’s inner workings would count for little if the player continued to scale the heights he is capable of.
“I’m not sure he’s bitter [about the treatment he received from Arsenal's supporters],” Hughes said. “I think he’s upset, it’s certainly something that has affected him quite deeply.
“He has no problem with Arsenal Football Club itself because he sees it as a huge part of his football life and how he developed as a player but you just sense, and he’s said it himself, that he can’t quite understand why the Arsenal fans turned against him.
“That’s maybe why we’re getting the benefit of how he’s playing and his demeanour at the moment because City fans absolutely love him. They’ve never seen a player like Adebayor in a blue shirt, I would suggest.”
Hughes moved for Adebayor after a failed attempt to persuade Samuel Eto’o, the Barcelona striker, to join City this summer, but the manager appears to be more than satisfied with the way things have worked out.
With Roque Santa Cruz some way off a return, Robinho struggling with an ankle injury and Carlos Tévez facing between ten days and three weeks out because of a knee problem that is almost certain to rule him out of the derby against Manchester United, his former club, at Old Trafford a week tomorrow, Adebayor will be the fulcrum of City’s attack against Arsenal.
“He’s in a select band,” Hughes said. “I have looked at many, many top players with huge reputations and I don’t see many up there with the qualities that Ade has got. He has that ability to open up defences despite what the opposition might do.”
Hughes believes City can match Arsenal for “creative and expansive” football, although it is the ability to mix steel with silk that the manager believes will determine how successful his team are this season.
“Good players understand that sometimes you have to batten down the hatches and recognise when the momentum is changing in games and now we have guys who understand when there is a shift in the game,” Hughes said.