Good article(soz if been posted)
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.
Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2009 8:05 pm
