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Emmanuel Adebayor sets record straight about Man City

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By Leon Mann
BBC Sports News

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Adebayor sets the record straight

When Manchester City take on Stoke in the FA Cup final on Saturday, Emmanuel Adebayor - on loan at Real Madrid from Eastlands - will be watching from a hotel room in the Spanish city of Villarreal. It is a pretty bleak image.

He looked into getting tickets for the game so he could cheer his friends on but, as Real Madrid have a match the following day, will have to settle for seeing the match on the television.

As I sit down with him in his garden in Madrid for our interview, he is all smiles, handshakes and laughs. It is a stark contrast to the moment when, in his last week at City before moving on loan to Real Madrid, he asked himself: "What am I still doing alive?"

There are no club press officers or PR people with us. He's ready to talk openly and starts by explaining how he fell out with City manager Roberto Mancini.

"It's always difficult to come back and play football when you know you may have been buried somewhere," Adebayor tells me. He is referring to the gun attack on the Togo team bus at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations.

The tragic incident in Angola left three people dead and the survivors, of which Adebayor was one, in deep shock. A traumatic time, Adebayor had a period of compassionate leave but returned to football following a request from City boss Mancini.

"I jumped on the first plane and I came back to Manchester. I played and scored goals," he said. "Then we went on holiday and came back. I don't know what happened in his [Mancini's] head but I was not part of his plans any more."
ADEBAYOR'S CAREER
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Born 26 Feburary 1984, Togo
Metz (2001-2003)
Monaco (2003-2006)
Arsenal (2006-2009)
Manchester City (2009-2011)
Real Madrid (2011-present )
38 caps for Togo, 16 goals

The crunch came when he was brought on as a substitute by Mancini in injury-time against Manchester United, with the game meandering towards a 0-0 draw.

"He put me on for the last 15 seconds or 30 seconds," recalls Adebayor. "So I told him after the game: 'Listen, I'm not a 16-year-old boy'.

"I said 'please, I'm not forcing you to play me. If you don't want to play me, don't play me. But the respect I have for you, please have the minimum respect back for me. Don't play me for the last 15 seconds any more'.

"Then he got frustrated - saying 'how can you speak to me, I'm the manager'. I said 'yes, I know, but I don't know what you want me to do on the football pitch for 15 seconds. So respect me for that'. I think that from that day everything went bad, and he was not speaking to me any more."

It's rare to see footballers speak so openly. But while Adebayor is full of emotion as he talks, this isn't a mindless rant. It's his chance to tell the City fans his version of the events that led to him leaving.

Given what he's just told me, I ask whether the situation with Mancini can be repaired?

"Of course, yes," he says immediately. "Some people don't speak to their fathers for 10 or 15 years, but one day you will realise it's your father and you will talk to him back.

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Abebayor is among several top African players calling for help

"But we have a bad moment for maybe two or three months. If I have to go back we will sit down like two big men and sort out the problem. I'm not forcing him to play me but he has to have the right respect for his player. That's all I'm asking for."

The 27-year-old admits that part of him will be sad he's not involved in the FA Cup final. He misses his friends at the club, listing them and describing his relationship with them.

"I leave a family there," he adds. "Not a friend. I leave a family. You ask all of them and they will tell you they miss Adebayor because I made them laugh. They make me laugh and I was among them as family."

The striker describes his manager at the Bernabeu, Jose Mourinho, as the best he has ever worked under. Mourinho gives him what Mancini did not - respect.

"I'm not a regular starter [at Madrid], sometimes I'm on the bench, but at the end of the day I know what he wants me to do, what he's expecting from me - not like a manager who forgets you," says Adebayor.

"Sometimes when I was in Manchester I wasn't in the squad while knowing that I'm much better than some of them. I'm not going to say any names but when I was sitting down on the bench seeing some players playing, that's the very bad situation you can be in."

Conversation turns to African footballers' contribution to the Premier League. He is supporting Britain's Best of Africa Awards, with a ceremony to be held later this month to recognise the achievements of players from the continent both on and off the pitch.

Adebayor has been active away from the game, recently giving a house he owns in Ghana to orphans fleeing conflicts in west Africa. It will provide a home to hundreds of children and he will be paying their school fees too.
ADEBAYOR'S CAREER HONOURS
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Togo Fooballer of the Year: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
African Player of the Year: 2008
PFA Team of the Year: 2008
Spanish Cup winner 2011

He wants the football industry to do more to support Africa through some of its problems.

"We can ask football to do more," he says. "For example, if you mention the name of Didier Drogba to important people then they take notice. If you mention Michael Essien it's the same. Salomon Kalou - the same. Alex Song - the same.

"So we have to do something. We have to meet with each other and discuss what we can ask the Premier League to do for our continent. If we put something down together into a proposal then I think the Premier League may take notice."

Last month Adebayor made headlines for both the right and wrong reasons. His two goals against Tottenham in the Champions League quarter-final effectively ended the north London club's dream of progressing in the competition. But chants alleged to contain "racial overtones" caused some campaigners to ask Uefa, European football's governing body, to take action.

"I heard about it and I felt so bad because before joining Real Madrid my first choice was Tottenham. I was supposed to move to Tottenham," he reveals.

"I was supposed to sign for Tottenham but everything went and Madrid came in. It is bad because people have to realise that we are footballers. Today we play for this club, tomorrow we may end up playing for them. So what about if I'm wearing Tottenham's shirt tomorrow? As their player, are they going to encourage me or are they still going to sing that song?"

Adebayor has to report to the team hotel later in the day so I'm aware that we're eating into his personal time. But at the end of our interview, instead of rushing us out of the door, he has time for a kickabout on his lawn.

Unsurprisingly, he is in his element showcasing his skills with a ball at his feet. I can't help but think that if things had worked out differently he could have been preparing for an FA Cup final.

But with a Copa del Rey winner's medal with Real already secured, he's not bitter about missing out. Instead, he's looking to the future.

"Maybe they're going to win the FA Cup this year", he says of City. "Maybe next year, with me, they're going to win the league. And I think the league is bigger than the Cup? Maybe with me, we even win the Champions League next season, so I wish them the best of luck."

Seems genuinely upset not to be around....

Ade could still play a part here but i majorly doubt mancini will let him back in the frey.

When you tell a manager what to do it never goes well.

Bugger, you must have posted this as I was reading it! Done same thread..

Ted Hughes wrote:Bugger, you must have posted this as I was reading it! Done same thread..

Yours wins due to slightly more passionate post-article musings.

ian494 wrote:Seems genuinely upset not to be around....

Ted Hughes wrote:If we can't get a top striker in (& if Tevez leaves we need two imo) there's no reason imo, that him & Bob can't grow up, behave like adults & have a working relationship so we can use him as 4th striker instead of wankers like Jo. His peformances were no worse than Dzeko or Balotelli's have been, so if those two are deemed good enough to play most weeks now, Adebayor is good enough to fill in for them next season if we need him.

Anyone else getting a bit sick of how he mentions that he should be dead and does not know why he is alive in EVERY FUCKING INTERVIEW since the shooting?

I understand that these were traumatizing events but COME ON....

I'm with Mancini when it comes to Adebayor.

Ade has got a bad attitude, is lazy and only plays well against Arsenal. Sorry lad you have to do better and earn your corn if you ever want to play for City again and all this PR rubbish with interviews, i'm not buying it.

Talk is cheap, do your talking on the pitch...deeds not words is what we need

I'm with Ade on this. Playing someone 15 seconds before the whistle is shitty thing to do. Besides, a player should be able to walk to a manager and say; "look mate, I think you're a great manager, but playing me 15 seconds before time was kind of shitty to do me."

Funnily enough, both me and my girlfriend were watching this match and both of us kept wondering why Adebayor wasn't put on and when he finally was, we just facepalmed ourselves, at the amount of time he was given to play.

I have absolutely no issue with Ade coming back to City

Him and Mancini need to have a proper grown up talk about whether they can work together and each's expectations if they choose to do so but I would much prefer to have Adebayor, a proven PL striker who knows the club and team, in our line-up as one of 4 strikers than taking a punt on another import.

I would be very happy with Balotelli, Adebayor, Dzeko, Tevez (or A N Other)

Mark Garrett wrote:I'm with Mancini when it comes to Adebayor.

Ade has got a bad attitude, is lazy and only plays well against Arsenal. Sorry lad you have to do better and earn your corn if you ever want to play for City again and all this PR rubbish with interviews, i'm not buying it.

Talk is cheap, do your talking on the pitch...deeds not words is what we need

Lazy in his games this season, compared to the workrate of Balotelli, Dzeko & Jo ?

Can't accept that.

Ted Hughes wrote:

Mark Garrett wrote:I'm with Mancini when it comes to Adebayor.

Ade has got a bad attitude, is lazy and only plays well against Arsenal. Sorry lad you have to do better and earn your corn if you ever want to play for City again and all this PR rubbish with interviews, i'm not buying it.

Talk is cheap, do your talking on the pitch...deeds not words is what we need

Lazy in his games this season, compared to the workrate of Balotelli, Dzeko & Jo ?

Can't accept that.

Balotelli is young and will hopefully learn that he needs to work harder - has improved in the past month or so in this respect, Jo is a joke and will be leaving in the summer so no point in wasting time discussing him - unfortunately his signing shows what happens when you allow a lunatic like Shinawatra to buy a player, Dzeko - same as Balotelli needs to work harder and find his feet but the time to judge him will be middle to end of next season.

Adebayor has played in England for years, last season after a wonderful start, didn't perform or work hard enough for the team for me. Similarly this season, when he has had his opportunities he has not had the same spark that he had in his first half a dozen games for us.

If he can recapture the form of first 6 games back along with his workrate then happy days otherwise Mancini will rightly show him the exit door at Eastlands and it will be Adebayor's loss that he didn't make it work at City

i've said it a million times...there isn't a striker on our team that has more raw potential than Ade...his feet, his head, his ball skills, his pace...he's got everything. Also, he was easily one of the best defensive forwards in the box on corners and free kicks in the league. Always had a head on something and in the right place defensively.

i wish he were here, because as others have said he wouldn't be doing worse than Jayko or Balo. Proven premiership goal-scoring ability that we're lacking.

i also don't believe he's lazy. He does get disillusioned and goes missing when the team isn't playing and getting him involved. Wouldn't be the first forward to get frustrated with a lack of balls or service, would he? ANd wrt to him mentioning the shooting incident in every interview -- i'm sure he's still suffering some post-traumatic stress shit. he can talk about it every day as far as i'm concerned if he were to get back in the team and make a difference. whatever helps him deal with it.

cheers

I'd like him back. He can do a job. He is better than what we have. If he had never played for us and we signed him this summer there would be a lot of us thinking what a masterstroke to bring him in. But....
What's wrong with giving him 15seconds? Managers regularly make these changes deep in injury to waste time, break up play etc. Is Ade too good to do that for the team? I don't think so.

DoomMerchant wrote:i've said it a million times...there isn't a striker on our team that has more raw potential than Ade...his feet, his head, his ball skills, his pace...he's got everything. Also, he was easily one of the best defensive forwards in the box on corners and free kicks in the league. Always had a head on something and in the right place defensively.

i wish he were here, because as others have said he wouldn't be doing worse than Jayko or Balo. Proven premiership goal-scoring ability that we're lacking.

i also don't believe he's lazy. He does get disillusioned and goes missing when the team isn't playing and getting him involved. Wouldn't be the first forward to get frustrated with a lack of balls or service, would he? ANd wrt to him mentioning the shooting incident in every interview -- i'm sure he's still suffering some post-traumatic stress shit. he can talk about it every day as far as i'm concerned if he were to get back in the team and make a difference. whatever helps him deal with it.

cheers

I absolutely agree about the defensive headers part. Ade was great to have for free kicks and corners, maybe it was the strikers instinct but he seemed to get his head on a disproportionate number of corners when we were defending. Would he have a role to play against Stoke - Fuck yes! Would be an almost certain starter for me.

With him, Yaya and grandad Pat we could out-Stoke Stoke if we needed too. It could go down as the ugly cup final.

There are always two sides to a story. Expect Mancini's version of the sub story would be slightly different. A substitution that late in the game is usually a stalling tactic of some kind but as we were losing, WTF was he ever going to do in less than a minute. Good managers should be able to admit they have made mistakes though, if that is the case here. I should think Mancini was probably putting Ade in his place by giving him less than a minute, probably a reaction to something that had gone before. I hope they can resolve their issues. Ade made a good impression on me early on when he was here, must admit it faded a bit towards the end but I am not convinced yet that either ED or Mario offer a great deal more..

Blue Blood wrote:Ade could still play a part here but i majorly doubt mancini will let him back in the frey.

When you tell a manager what to do it never goes well.

if that is an accurate description of what happened, though, Ade had all rights to be pissed at Mancini; he's not the first player who gets offended because he is brought on with one or two minutes to go, and to be fair I think unless it's a young kid you want to give the debut to, it doesn't make sense to bring on a footballer with so little to go to the full whistle. He just asked Mancini not to play him like that again, he didn't ask to be played week in week out from the start.

So, basically, Real madrid don't want him next year then.

Lev Bronstein wrote:So, basically, Real madrid don't want him next year then.

Pretty much.

I can't for a fucking second understand how someone would think Ade is right here. he is being paid massive amount of money to work for us. Manager is being paid money to make the decision how to use him. If manager thinks fifteen seconds is best he can do then so be it. If my boss thinks I serve the industry best by wiping floors then so be it. I still get paid the same. I might disagree with him but I'm in no position to make such decisions.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:I can't for a fucking second understand how someone would think Ade is right here. he is being paid massive amount of money to work for us. Manager is being paid money to make the decision how to use him. If manager thinks fifteen seconds is best he can do then so be it. If my boss thinks I serve the industry best by wiping floors then so be it. I still get paid the same. I might disagree with him but I'm in no position to make such decisions.

i'd like to 'utilise' you to go grab some wipes and wipe the shit off of some other person's butt today if you don't mind.

Oh, wait, that is your job. You also still get paid the same.

cheers

p.s. we will have to agree to disagree about Ade...i get your point about the manager, but clearly Mancini likes to fuck with players and runs shit with a steel fist. Dunno if that's a major part of why Tevez wants to leave, but regardless of the Kia influence, if Tevez felt a connection or the love i don't think Kia would be as influential. Mancini isn't exactly the 'arm around your shoulder' people manager, and that's not a dig, i don't think the best really are, but clearly some of ours need some of that sometime and won't get any warm and fuzzies from our little mussolini.

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:I can't for a fucking second understand how someone would think Ade is right here. he is being paid massive amount of money to work for us. Manager is being paid money to make the decision how to use him. If manager thinks fifteen seconds is best he can do then so be it. If my boss thinks I serve the industry best by wiping floors then so be it. I still get paid the same. I might disagree with him but I'm in no position to make such decisions.

Got to disagree with that! Dictatorship doesn't work any better than anarchy and I am not extolling the virtues of democracy as a management tool either. There has to be a bit of everything at the right time. If your boss wants to get the best out of you as an employee then wiping floors is unlikely to be the way to go about it, unless he says to you, look NQDP I know you are much better than this but I have to get the floors clean just once and I really think you can do it better than anyone else I have available at the moment. Otherwise he may as well crap in yer shoes and fuck yer wife and tell you that you are getting paid so fuckin live with it. Its a team game and a bit of respect goes a long way!

DoomMerchant wrote:

Niall Quinns Discopants wrote:I can't for a fucking second understand how someone would think Ade is right here. he is being paid massive amount of money to work for us. Manager is being paid money to make the decision how to use him. If manager thinks fifteen seconds is best he can do then so be it. If my boss thinks I serve the industry best by wiping floors then so be it. I still get paid the same. I might disagree with him but I'm in no position to make such decisions.

i'd like to 'utilise' you to go grab some wipes and wipe the shit off of some other person's butt today if you don't mind.

Oh, wait, that is your job. You also still get paid the same.

cheers

p.s. we will have to agree to disagree about Ade...i get your point about the manager, but clearly Mancini likes to fuck with players and runs shit with a steel fist. Dunno if that's a major part of why Tevez wants to leave, but regardless of the Kia influence, if Tevez felt a connection or the love i don't think Kia would be as influential. Mancini isn't exactly the 'arm around your shoulder' people manager, and that's not a dig, i don't think the best really are, but clearly some of ours need some of that sometime and won't get any warm and fuzzies from our little mussolini.

I've only wiped someone's arse seven times today. I've also wiped pee off the floor in doctors office as certain someone thought that taking diapers off for weight in was cool. Also how can one grow 3 centimeters and gain 500 grams in one week?

Incidentally, football team is like kindergarten. It's essential to let them run around freely and do what they do but in the end of the day there can only be one person who makes the decisions. And it's not one of the kids.