In Defence Of Emmanuel Adebayor…
A lot has been said about Emmanuel Adebayor since his rather controversial behaviour in Manchester City’s 4-2 win over Arsenal. I think the word ’scum’ was about the most polite adjective I have heard to describe the Togolese striker in the days since his 100 yard sprint to the Arsenal fans to celebrate his goal against his former club.
For those who are not aware of the incident, after scoring City’s third goal in that 4-2 win Adebayor literally ran the entire length of the field to celebrate right in front of the Arsenal away end. Arsenal’s supporters did not take too kindly to this. Many of them were furious and rushed the stewards, faces contorted with venemous outrage as they climbed over each other in a desperate bid to confront their new most hated player. It quickly got nasty. One of the missiles intended for Adebayor knocked a steward unconscious.
While everything that took place in the aftermath of the celebration was unfortunate and sad to see, I actually found the incident itself quite amusing, and see no reason why Adebayor is being condemned as though he were Nasty Nick and Pol Pot rolled into one.
To put the events at Eastlands into context it is worth looking at how this particular pot brewed.
‘Give him the ball..’
Emmanuel Adebayor joined Arsenal from Monaco in 2006. Quickly likened to another former Gunner, Kanu, for his style of play, Adebayor settled in well at the Emirates and became a fans’ favourite thanks in particular to a magnificent 2007/2008 season that saw him finish as the Premier League’s second highest goalscorer with 24 league goals.
His performances that season were exceptional and Adebayor ended the campaign with 30 goals in 48 games, the Premier League goal of the season award for a magnificent strike against Arsenal’s biggest rivals Spurs, the BBC African Footballer of the Year award and a place in the PFA Team of the Year 2008. By and large Arsenal fans loved him, though judging by comments on this Arsenal fans forum in January 2008, even at the height of his powers at the club certain anti-Adebayor factions existed (as comments at 09.36 and 11.04 suggest).
In 2008/2009 however, the relationship between Arsenal fans and Adebayor changed drastically. Rumours were abound that the striker was touting himself to clubs like AC Milan and FC Barcelona, a claim Adebayor strongly denied, though he did describe interest from Milan as ’something special.’ Whether Adebayor was angling for a move away from Arsenal or it was simply paper talk, the matter was seemingly resolved when the Togo frontman eventually signed a contract extension. When asked by the club’s official website where all the speculation came from Adebayor said:
To be honest I don’t know. Like I told you I was on holiday and you can imagine a lot of people would be imagining things and saying such things because I was in Togo, but I can tell you surely I never told anyone that I would be leaving this club. Never ever. And today I can say to Arsenal TV, Sky, every single TV in the world I have never told anyone that I would be leaving this club. And today I’m very happy that we’ve found a solution to stay here and my heart is with Arsenal so I’m great here. I thank all the fans, all the people that support me to make my dreams come true and now the most important thing is [...] to keep on playing my football.
Few Arsenal fans took his word. Adebayor’s failure to re-capture his outstanding form of 07/08 in 08/09 only further angered Gunners supporters, and amidst accusations of laziness and with the supposed summer transfer saga still fresh in the memory, Arsenal fans turned against their former son. In a season in which Arsenal underperformed, Adebayor was booed by his own fans, something which clearly hurt the player and stuck in his memory.
As Adebayor told the Sun in May 2009: “It was not nice playing at home and getting booed by my own fans. I don’t know what to do any more. If Porto, for example, wants Adebayor it is not Adebayor’s fault. Why boo me?”
Not only booed, Adebayor’s car was also reportedly vandalised by Gunners fans not best pleased with his performances. With relations frosty it became inevitable, to Arsene Wenger at least, that a parting of the ways was necessary. Adebayor was sold to Manchester City for £25 million.
100 yard sprint, 100 moral arguments
So fast forward to last Saturday. Here is a man who was not even liked during his final season at Arsenal, let alone after his departure to Manchester City. He is booed by the fans while playing for
Arsenal, has his car vandalised by his own supporters, is vilified when he leaves and receives a barrage of nasty and quite vicious insults on the playing field. All that apparently based on little more than a few quotes saying how great a club AC Milan were (has Cesc Fabregas never talked up Barcelona?) and accusations of laziness (despite a hamstring injury that kept him out for 2 months Adebayor still scored 16 goals in 2008/2009, bettered only by Robin Van Persie).
And then he scores a goal for his new club against Arsenal. Would you not react similarly? Would you not feel a similar sense of euphoria? Is it beyond reason that, in the face of such hatred, you too might get lost in the emotion of the moment?
Sometimes it is hard to escape the feeling that we as football fans really do need to get over ourselves. ‘Inciting the fans’ has been the cry of the day in Adebayor’s case, with people everywhere calling for the City striker to be punished. But are Arsenal fans not responsible for their own actions? Should they too not face sanctions? After all it was not Emmanuel Adebayor that hit a steward with a missile.
As football fans we like to love our favourites and abuse our rivals. We shower our heroes with songs of praise and vilify opposition players. It is part of the game. But why is it deemed reasonable that we can throw any kind of abuse we like at a player, and then the minute we receive some in kind we get all offended?
The abuse Emmanuel Adebayor had to put up with from the away fans at Arsenal was unpleasant in the extreme. And yet for his reaction in scoring (remember, he did not even stray from the playing field) he is deemed to be ‘aggravating the crowd’ and will likely receive a ban and a large fine. To me that is totally unfair.
Modern day footballers – ‘robots’?
Adebayor at Eastlands is not the first example of this. Gary Neville against Liverpool, Robbie Fowler whilst playing for Manchester City against Manchester United and Junior Stanislas for West Ham against Millwall are three other examples that spring to mind.
Liverpool fans abused Neville and his family for 90 minutes at Old Trafford. Neville took it all game, then responded by celebrating passionately and kissing his badge at them after United grabbed a dramatic last minute winner. For that Neville was charged with improper conduct, banned for 2 games and fined £5,000. How is that in any way fair? Stanislas was racially abused by Millwall fans all game, yet is condemned for ‘inciting the fans’ when he has the audacity to punch his fist in the air in celebration in their vicinity after scoring. That does not seem right.
Ignoring the ‘incitement’ argument for a minute, another question. Why shouldn’t players be allowed to respond in such a way? Arsenal fans’ original gripe with Adebayor was that he wasn’t showing enough passion. Well, inadvertently did they not get what they asked for! “Where is football being taken?” Gary Neville asked sarcastically at his FA hearing. “Being a robot, devoid of passion and spirit, is obviously the way forward for the modern-day footballer.” I agree with his sentiment.
How boring would it have been if Adebayor had just jogged back to the halfway line emotionless? His celebration was the biggest talking point of the season so far. Surely as a spectacle we want more not less of this in football?
Simply put, the existing mentality in English football that suggests supporters can say or sing anything they want about players, but are then entitled to cry ‘incitement’, claim the moral high ground and get awfully offended the minute a player gives some back is a completely flawed logic and one that should not continue to go unchallenged.
Emmanuel Adebayor’s choice of celebration may not have been the cleverest, but it is Arsenal’s fans who are responsible for what happened afterwards.
Arsenal, Emmanuel Adebayor, English Premier League, Manchester CityShare This Post!
About Jonathan F
The boss of this here... Creator and Editor of Just-Football.com, world football analyst, watcher, freelancer and all-round enthusiast. French football analyst for Football Radar. Write for FourFourTwo, have also written for ITV, When Saturday Comes and others.
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Just Football presents…
good article.
soon we will have no "fun" left in the game
Maybe inciting a riot or stamping on an ex-teammates ankle or head is just part of today's game. Boys will be boys.
I think there was nothing wrong with the celebration & a bit of banter.
Hope he does it at Ashburton in April.
Quickly and for the record, this article is not intended to debate or defend the stamp on Van Persie. That is a separate matter with separate implications.
it's the Arsenal fans fault for falling out of love with him is it?
He chose (in his words) "Beyonce" when he was being courted by Italian clubs 2 years ago and decided not to put the same effort at Arsenal…
not only did he show his disloyalty then but the headbutting, during a game against our rivals, of a team mate was unbelievable. I couldn't understand why he did receive a lengthy ban then.
Not forgetting his going on strike for his national team, I think tells you much of what you need to know about Adebayor.
A gifted but flawed player – a trouble maker with anger management problems.
Even though he is a very talented but sporadically talented player, I would choose Bendtner over him every time and was delighted when Ade grasped at the money being offered for him.
Let's remember he always says "it's not about the money".
He struck at Togo over pay
He rang Man Utd. & Chelsea after the offer at Man City was in place to see if they could offer better money.
Good, well balanced article – RVP was just as guilty on the "incitement" charge 18 minutes earlier in the game, but City fans didn't respond (quite rightly).
As to the alleged "stamp" ………. whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?
REGARD ANONYMOUS COMMENTS! Were you at the game?
I was. Van persie has more to answer to than addy.
The 2 footed lunge should by the rulesbe a red card,maybe he was reacting to someone trying to break his legs.Also slow down any incident in any game and you will be lucky tohave any players left on the pitch.
Van persie celebrated his goalin front of us city fans mouthing the words fuck off several times.We the city fans did not start throwing missiles and fighting each other (we have brains)! finally arsenal fans should be banned from travelling anywhere if they react in such a moronic way.
QUESTION: ADDY WAS INCITIED BY ARSENAL FANS VERBALLY ALL GAME, HE ANSWERED THEM BACK BY SCORING AND CELEBRATING.
ADDY INCITED THE ARSENAL FANS BY DOING THIS, AND THEY REACTED BY VIOLENCE.
WHO IS AT FAULT????????????????
With such a large black following I was both surprised and shocked to hear so many racist remarks/ chants aimed at Emmanuel Adebayor on Saturday from a good percentage of the Arsenal following. He also had bananas thrown at him, I'm yet to see any of the above printed in the papers.
Certain sections of the Arsenal fans were a disgrace.
Van Persie knows all about inciting the crowd, I've seen that for myself at football matches.
@blootoof – were you at the game? I have heard reports of this too but wasn't sure whether to believe it given Arsenal have a large black contingent both of fans and players. Would be very interested to know if that really happened.
If West Ham and Millwall are fined for 'failure to control the crowd' then Arsenal should be punished similarly.
Where do I start with this?
Firstly the majority feeling amongst Arsenal fans was that Adebayor was a good player that made himself better with his desire and work rate. He had and still has the potential to become a world beater. I think the majority of Arsenal fans would have happily continued to support Adebayor if it wasn't for one particular incident.
During the 2008 summer window there were constant rumours of Ade wanting to leave to get more money. Quotes were being attributed to him that made him sound money grabbing and mercenary, he would prefer to play at another club etc etc. There was discussion at the time that as we couldn't believe most of what is written in our gutter press we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Most did some did not. No denials came out from Adebayor and Arsenal fans were worrying about losing him, then we hear that he and Wenger are going to give an interview to SKY sports, in the interview he denies wanting to go and claims that he is happy at the club and will stay. Problem solved.
Two minutes later after leaving the Arsenal interview he then comes out on video in a separate interview and says most of the things that we had hoped were press lies. To sum it up he was saying that if we didn't give him a pay rise then plenty of other European clubs would happily pay him and he was in talks with them already. He also compared himself to Henry and Henry's salary.
I think this moment was when he revealed himself to be less than honest and a money grabber and it was then that a large chunk of the Arsenal fans turned against him. It was directly him and all could see it on youtube (sadly now all gone) so there was no hiding from it.
Still Arsenal doubled his salary (as we had already done when he joined us) and he played on. The interview you have quotes from was taken after he signed his new double your money contract and after he had revealed to the fans that this was his priority.
Initially the kissing of the badge was ill advised and didn't go down well but he still had his song going and still got support from the crowd. However his work rate tailed off and his movement was soon next to nothing. It was clear he didn't want to be at Arsenal any more. It was at this stage that the rest of the crowd gave up on him.
Adebayor will have you believe that his poor performance came about because he was being boo'd. This is simply wrong he started to get boo'd because his performances were getting so poor.
Most Arsenal Fans are glad that he has gone as Wenger and some players had implied in interviews that the atmosphere is much better in the dressing room without him. Certainly Bendtner doesn't have to worry about being abused and head butted by his own team-mate during a game again.
What makes it interesting for me is that when Adebayor had agreed terms with Man City he delayed signing citing personal reasons. In one interview stating that people in his native Togo might think this move was about money and question why he would move from Arsenal to Man City. Honourable, possibly, but whilst saying this he and his agent were in contact with Manchester United, Chelsea, Barcelona and AC Milan trying to get them to match City's offer. Thats how much he values Man City.
He will give them a good season maybe two but eventually they will see the Adebayor that Arsenal fans learned to dislike. Lazy, self absorbed and disruptive.
As for this incident, it is a nothing incident. He sees himself as the wronged party and he now has his revenge for what he sees as the Arsenal fans turning on him. It's just a matter of time before he thinks the same of the Man City fans. I wonder what he will do to them?
"@blootoof – were you at the game? I have heard reports of this too but wasn't sure whether to believe it given Arsenal have a large black contingent both of fans and players. Would be very interested to know if that really happened."
I was at the game and it didn't happen, at least anywhere around me or in my field of vision. We are a multicultural support and team so racist abuse is very unlikey from Arsenal fans. In fact the main song we sang was comparing him to Arshavin and not the Elephant song that Spurs sing. There have been claims that we sang that and they are not true either. However there were plenty of generous City fans throwing coins over for us though.
Some really good analysis and arguments here which I will address shortly, thanks guys.
In the meantime could I encourage any other commenters to please leave a name or moniker instead of 'Anonymous'? Makes it a bit easier when people reply to comments!
RUBBISH!!! ABSOLUTE RUBBISH !!
THERE WERE RACIST CHANTS AT ADDY ALLGAME BY ARSENAL FANS.
YES I WAS THERE ,I WAS DISGUSTED WITH YOUR SUPPORTERS AND DELIGHTED WHEN ADDY DID WHAT HE DID TO CELEBRATE,ONLY PROBLEM WAS ONE OF OUR STEWARDS GOT HURT BUT AS FOR YOU FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER I COULD NOT GET LESS.
ANIMALS
ADDY SHOULD BE SUEING ARSENAL
"Van Persie knows all about inciting the crowd, I've seen that for myself at football matches.
@blootoof – were you at the game? I have heard reports of this too but wasn't sure whether to believe it given Arsenal have a large black contingent both of fans and players. Would be very interested to know if that really happened."
Yes. A steward was also knocked out by a missile intended for Emmanuel. Plus a City fan ended up in MRI after getting struck after the match.
http://www.bluemoon-mcfc.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t;=139702&start;=10
If West Ham and Millwall are fined for 'failure to control the crowd' then Arsenal should be punished similarly.
I seem to remember Thierry Henry sprint the length of the pitch and celebrate when he equalised against Spurs when Arsenal were in 5th place in the 2005/6 season. He ran the full length of the pitch and started dancing in front of the Spurs section. I didn't see Arsenal fans complaining that day or Henry getting banned either. Hypocrites.
Pure & simple sour grapes from Arsenal fans, who've ridden the Champion's League gravy train since they were lucky enough to qualify in the earliest days of the Premier League. They have come to believe they have the right to automatic qualification, but that's no longer the case. OK, let me spell it out. If you sell your two best players to one of your biggest rivals, then the chances are that when you play them, you'll get royally turned over. No point spitting the dummy out – that's how life is when you become one of the also rans. Show a little self respect and learn to live with it.
The stamp was a spur of the moment flick of the boot after nearly having his leg broken by Van Persie wrapping both boots studs up at him. Only because he remained on his feet ( just ) did retaliation have a chance to show itself. Van Persie missed, Adebayor hit.
The celebration was wrong but totally understandable given the constant vile taunts from Arsenal supporters. He should get at worst a suspended ban, pending future conduct.
In this day and age you should now what how to behave on the field and he's paid enough to be able to take it on the chin.
If he fancies giving back a bit of banter to the fans and club that made him the millionaire he is now then fine but if a few nutters run on the pitch and give him their response on the chin it'll be in good banter as well…
Citeh fans tend to forget that Adebay** (deliberately)stamped Fabregas as well, not just RvP(deliberately), and to top it off he had to celebrate in front of the Arsenal supporters. Why coulnd't he celebrate in front of the (his own) 40 000 strong homecrowd? Disrespect?
And…….
Why wasn't Arsenal awrded a penalty after moneygrabber2 Barrys obvious IRONCLAD HANDS? Barry handed the ball with his hand over his head. How the ref missed it is beneath me.
I guess Mr Clatten**** wore SKYBLUE shades that day!
I can understand how you could defend your own player but some of you city fans are taking it too far.
The guy who said "It was a spur of the moment flick" is a total idiot. Did you see the picture or the footage on youtube? He knew exactly what he was doing. He was looking at RVP when he did it for fuck sake!
He's already pissed off every club he's played for including his national team. Can't wait till shows his true colours then we'll see how much you defend him.
I think the problem is that the two incidents are hard to separate. The guys who threw missiles and tried to invade the pitch should be banned for life. Ofcourse Adebayor has no way of telling if the people he celebrates infront of actually did taunt him. Maybe they are one of his biggest fans? In any case it is the accumulated performance that gives this reaction and I cannot view the two incidents separatly. If you add them up the guy must really hate everything about his old club which is just sad.
I was never one of his fans regardless how many goals he scored because I never thought he fit in in the Arsenal way of playing and that he was lazy. However I allways made a point of adding that he would be a great asset for a team that played a different kind of football. No it gets more and more obvious that they will also have to cope with his temper and arrogance. Instead of wishing him all the best I now just feel that I'm even more glad to get rid of him based on the van Persie Incident and unfortunately I fear what can happen when he plays at Emirates.
P.S. For you who compare Henrys celebration at White Heart Lane or Persies celebration in the above game, thats not the same. To take it to another extreme, how would you feel if Stephen Ireland did the same thing in a couple of years playing for another team?
Ofcourse that wouldn't happen cause he is a class player which roughly sums up what you have gotten for your 23 million.
All we did was boo him. Eduardo gets booed every time he touches the ball. C.Ronaldo gets booed. Loads of players get booed, he gets paid 140,000 a week to look above that.
We didn't sing the elephant song, we didn't racially abuse him and we didn't sing about his family.
It's fairly simple. Adebayor had spent the last few days slagging off the Arsenal fans. Their right of reply was to boo him and heckle him. To describe the abuse he received as "unpleasant in the extreme" is a little odd. I was in the away end, the song regarding his fathers line of employment wasn't sung, other than by a handful of people in the concourse before the match had started, what was sung was a song about Andrei Arshavin which finishes with the line "f*ck Adebayor".
A football supporters only right of reply is to heckle a player at a match, I've been at games where the abuse has probably gone over the top, but Saturday, until he scored, was not one of those situations. However, Adebayor caused a charged atmosphere to spill over with his ridiculous choice of celebration. That said, the article correctly points out that the behaviour of the Arsenal fans was reprehensible too. Just becuase someone winds you up does not give you the right to start hurling stuff onto the pitch. Neither party deserves to absolved of the blame for this incident, as they were both in the wrong, and should be punished accordingly.
I agree with the sentiments that it wasn't the most dignified of actions by Adebayor to rub Arsenal's noses into it given they are the club that gave him the profile and stage to become what he is today. As Arsene Wenger pointed out, it wasn't of the highest 'elegance.'
However – @arse fan and a few others, I can't really see how money comes into it. In the heat of the moment I wouldn't imagine the thought of earning x amount of money per week goes through many people's heads let alone professionals playing a high intensity game of football.
And if it did would we not then accuse them of being soulless money grabbers?
fans abusing players… thats what they're there for! players have to be pro about it however there are situations that cross the line like racism but thats not EA's case. how can anyone defend his cleat-face-stamp; Van Persie is his ex-teammate, he could have been seriously injured. i think the FA should have given him a bin fin/ban for his actions.
well,well,well…greedybayor killed it with his celebration. Why? because he got us all posting comments and talking footy again. International football break comes along and then is quickly gone and now where back to club football and lets face it, it matters more when you get a reaction like this from a goal celebration in a club match.
Adebayors celebration lacked class. But it was hilarious watching the arsenal fans react the way they did. Their reaction surprised me more than anything in that football match!
Nice post – Emmanuel Adebayor ..Keep Posting
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