Forget ‘That’ Song – Adebayor Has A Point To Prove At Spurs

After what seems an eternity haggling over wages and fee, Emmanuel Adebayor’s season long loan deal has finally been announced. Spurs long wait for a powerful front man is over. Adebayor is exactly the kind of striker Spurs have been looking for since summer 2010 and can provide the perfect foil for Rafa Van der Vaart and should also link well with Defoe or Pavlyuchenko if needed.

Adebayor needs little introduction to Spurs fans, in his time at Arsenal he seemed to thrive in North London Derbies and is of course remembered for his goal of the season effort against Spurs in 2007. Adebayor also took on a comedy role in the famous 5-1 Carling Cup semi final at The Lane, as he and Nicklas Bendtner clashed. As he grew weary of not winning any silverware with our rivals he became restless. A summer 2009 move to the newly oil rich Manchester City saw him turned on by Arsenal fans. Even more so when he famously scored against them at Eastlands, sprinted down the pitch and slid on his knees to celebrate in front of them.

His second season didn’t go so well with City as he fell out of favour with Roberto Mancini and again the former Togo captain got itchy feet. Jose Mourinho in desperate need of a striker at Real Madrid came calling. Whilst not prolific for the Spanish giants, Adebayor impressed Mourinho and seasoned observers in Spain. Typically for Adebayor, one of his best performances in Madrid’s famous white was against Spurs in the Bernabeu.

Spurs finally have a striker who has all the skills needed to complement the rest of what is a potentially devastating attacking line up. Adebayor on his day can be totally unplayable, combining awesome strength and good technique to trouble even the worlds top centrebacks. At 6 foot 3 and with an impressive leap he is as good in the air as anyone in the Premier League and of course as Spurs have seen possesses a ferocious shot. Adebayor’s goal record in the Premier League is just a shade under a goal every two games, which is the mark of a top class striker. So surely everyone’s happy then?

No, obviously not. Whether it’s because he used to play for Arsenal or his complaints about that chant some Spurs fans have sung at him, or a combination of the two, there are many with vehement objections to him joining Spurs and donning the famous Lilywhite shirt. Or is it that he’s supposedly ‘just not a nice person.’ His appearances for The BBC during the last World Cup showed thats clearly not the case and despite not having the greatest command of English he showed a good sense of humour & reading of the game. He’s also mates with Benoit Assou-Ekotto it appears and Benny’s far too cool to hang out with a fool. There are those trying vainly to convince themselves and others that their objection is that he’s not good enough. That’s a ridiculous assertion as his record at the top level shows.

So it boils down to him being ex-Arsenal & accusing Spurs fans of being racist then. Both points are obviously for some, massive obstacles and should not be brushed aside lightly.

Regarding his history at Arsenal, two points spring to mind. Firstly the success of William Gallas last season showed that the trip up the Seven Sisters Road can work out. Obviously there are still some who refuse to cheer him but only the most blinkered fan would say that he didn’t do a fantastic job, usually on one leg. Gallas’ desire and passion was obvious from the minute he stepped out in a Spurs shirt and the number of times he played through the pain barrier showed that he really was keen to make a success of the move. Let’s face it, if he was after one last pay day he wouldn’t have chosen Spurs. The second point in Adebayors favour is that there is clearly no love lost between him & Arsenal fans. Unbridled delight on his face after his goal against them should prove that, just as the chairs thrown at him, show it goes both ways. You won’t find an Arsenal fan that will admit it but they will absolutely hate it if he’s successful for us, even more so if he can score against them.

As for the accusations over that song, officialdom rightly or wrongly deemed it not necessary to take action and that seemed to be the end of the matter. It should be remembered that Spurs current manager once branded the fans racist and ‘filth’ while he was in charge of Portsmouth, and he’s reached near messianic status with some. Only one person is entitled to take issue about playing for Spurs over that song, and that person is Emmanuel Adebayor. If he has no issue, then this whole saga should be put to bed.

Whatever your stance on his arrival, for the coming season he’ll be a Spurs player. After falling out with Mancini at City, his history down the road and that he’ll be looking to impress for a permanent move for next season – either to Spurs or elsewhere – Adebayor has some points to prove and could just be motivated to perform to the levels needed to help push Spurs back into Champions League contention.

So how does the new song go???

COYS

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