The Rise and Falls of Emmanuel Adebayor

Article by Sean Walsh

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12 months ago, we were calling for his head. 6 months ago, we were hoping he’d be sold. 3 months ago, we were happy he was being forced to play in the reserve and youth teams. Now, he’s our saviour. It can’t be easy being Emmanuel Adebayor.

Togo aren’t known for producing top talents, but when you’re 6’3 and banging in goals like Pele in a playground, someone’s bound to notice. Luckily for him, FC Metz of France were recruiting many young prodigies from all over the globe, and like future strike partner Louis Saha, signed on for Les Grenats.

Just like in his homeland, Adebayor was a class apart at Metz, and eventually moved to AS Monaco, becoming part of the team that made the 2004 UEFA Champions League final. Although he didn’t play in that match, he featured heavily on the road to Gelsenkirchen. Monaco managed just 6 shots in that match, and had they had thrown on an engine like Adebayor instead of former Blackburn forward Shabani Nonda and ex Rangers striker Dado Prso, the French outfit may have hit back before Porto’s late onslaught.

In 2006, Adebayor had become a wanted man after being displaced from the Monaco side, and Arsenal were at the front of the queue. Christened as ‘Baby Kanu’, it wasn’t until 2007 when Emmanuel hit the headlines. Adebayor was the joint highest scoring forward of the 07-08 season, and was becoming one of the most feared men in English forward. With pace, strength, energy and a fine shot all to boast, Adebayor equalled the once great Fernando Torres’ goal tally of 24 that year. Unfortunately for him, Arsenal’s season-long title challenge was derailed with a few games to spare, and European giants AC Milan and FC Barcelona were preparing bids for the Togolese striker.

Adebayor remained at Arsenal for one more year before eventually moving to recently-rich Manchester City, where he came back to haunt his old club (here’s the link, you’re welcome http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7657Hb27K4c). However, despite his prolific partnership with Argentina’s Carlos Tevez, Manchester City were beaten to 4th spot by a Peter Crouch goal (have another link, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiBBxfq7Q-8). Following that night, Adebayor fell out of favour under Roberto Mancini, in spite of taking City’s no. 9 ahead of Tevez and the newly signed Mario Balotelli. Edin Dzeko arrived in the January of 2011, and it seemed Adebayor was surplus to requirements at the Etihad Stadium. To make matters worse, these events were sandwiched in between the infamous Togo bus attack.

Desperate to leave City, Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid picked up the tab, and Adebayor was about to find a new lease of life again (sadly, this particularly impacted our Champions League run, which I definitely won’t be linking). Adebayor scored 8 goals in half a year for the Spanish outfit, but Mourinho was keen to look elsewhere for long term striking options.

Now the part I really want to talk about; Emmanuel Adebayor at Tottenham Hotspur. Our 2010-11 season was very dry in terms of goals, and a new striker was Harry Redknapp’s priority in the transfer market. Many were linked; Fernando Llorente, Klass-Jan Huntelaar, Samuel Eto’o, but Redknapp went with Adebayor, much to the bemusement of Spurs fans.

But after world class performances in his first games against Wolves and Liverpool, we quickly forgot that he was once of Arsenal. Those two games set the standard of his season, and Adebayor formed fantastic partnerships with 3 of Tottenham’s best players in the past 10, maybe 20 years- Luka Modric, Rafael Van der Vaart and Gareth Bale. The little Croatian shone in his final season in lilywhite, and Adebayor made him look even better. Whether he had dropped deep to collect the ball or latched onto one over-the-top, Adebayor was making Modric look like Xavi (not that we didn’t know that already). Van der Vaart’s final year was also improved with the aid of Adebayor; Crouch and Rafa worked well because of how the Dutchman would latch on to the giant’s layoffs, but assists were hard to come by as Crouch endured a frustrating year. However, Adebayor could finish and even switch positions with Van der Vaart, helping both of their tallies in terms of goals and assists. And Bale? Well, this was a time when the Welshman played on the left and delivered fine balls into the box, and Adebayor was more than grateful- remember that God-awful dance?

Sadly, 4th wasn’t enough for us, and the man managing Redknapp was replaced by the tactically thinking Andre Vilas-Boas- a switch that didn’t bold well for Adebayor. He found himself frequently benched to Jermain Defoe, and even when he did play, he seemed agitated. He wasn’t moving around like his usual self, almost as if he had been told not to...

I’m not knocking AVB, but Adebayor plays best when he’s given freedom- another reason why he didn’t work out well with Mancini at City. The shackles eventually came off, but it was too late to save Tottenham’s season, and we were preparing for a summer of rebuilding.

Many were shocked when Adebayor wasn’t sold, especially since we had brought in Roberto Soldado. But it was a blessing in disguise. Adebayor’s first appearance of the season came at Manchester City, and was once again unchained. Unfortunately, City walked all over us, and the threat of Adebayor was neutralised. Once again, Adebayor was frozen out by AVB.

Salvation came in the form of Tim Sherwood, who simply told Ade to go out and play the way he knows. That’s how you manage Adebayor. He lost his confidence when he couldn’t get into AVB’s team, and the fact he was restricted to freely move didn’t help either.

After a revealing interview with Sky Sports, we all had a little window into the real world of Emmanuel Adebayor- it’s much nicer than you think. The man is humble, grounded, thoughtful- it’s a wonder how he’s ever caused controversy. ‘One game at a time’ is his attitude, and not in the Daniel Levy-way (according to AVB). He’s proud to wear our shirt, and is willing to go to great lengths in order for us to win, which can be seen in his work rate. Ambition is also clear in him- “Is it possible (Winning the title)? Yes. Can we do it? Yes.” But, like I said, he’s also grounded, “Is it going to be very difficult? Yes.”.

He’s in the form of his life, and he seems unstoppable. Emmanuel Adebayor admits he hasn’t reached the peak of his powers yet, and says that 2014 will be a far better year than 2013.

Could he save our season?

Yes.

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