211: Emmanuel Adebayor, Manchester City, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, 2009/10

The return of fans to football stadiums was a sight to behold on the opening weekends of August and there is no doubt that the added edge of having tens of thousands of people chanting encouragement and/or screaming abuse brought much more to the games than the sterile pre-recorded crowd noise that had become the soundtrack to our lives. In the Premier League this also meant the return of high-class shithousery as Jamie Vardy added to his repertoire of celebrations in front of the travelling Wolverhampton Wanderers fans with a theatrical wolf howl to cap off his goal just before half-time. It’s good to see that the man who brought us the flapping wings against Crystal Palace and various renditions of cupped ears to visitors to the King Power still has so much to offer.

Back in the halcyon days of playground football such behaviour was commonplace. In Year 11 I was part of a notorious forward trio we branded ‘The Gleesome Threesome’ who focused more on providing the imaginary crowd with ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ rather than hitting the back of the net and were always ready to dish out some verbals to the hypothetical away fans at the end of every break. We did occasionally try to justify lateness to Period 3 with the excuse that we had to applaud the travelling support which was met with the level of derision deserving of three people who clearly weren’t going to light up the world of GCSE French in the way we believed we were illuminating the purest form of the beautiful game. As you can tell we were (and arguably still are) a bunch of idiots but it does go to show how much of an impact such behaviour in the professional game had on the young and impressionable.

Perhaps this is why referee Mark Clattenburg decided to brandish his yellow card at Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor after he had sprinted the length of the Etihad turf to perform a knee slide in front of the Arsenal fans who had just seen the striker nod home in the eightieth minute. The Togolese forward’s celebration sparked off riotous scenes in the away end and, depending on your point of view, the fact his City teammates did not join him suggested that he had either taken things too far or was being allowed to indulge in one of the single greatest acts of shithousing ever seen. It didn’t help that City ran out 4-2 winners or that the result damaged Arsenal’s title hopes but the fact that a crucial goal came courtesy of a former Gunner who then celebrated so emphatically must have really rubbed salt in the wounds.

There was nothing too contentious about Adebayor’s £25m move from Arsenal to Manchester City in the summer of 2009 and, with 62 goals in 142 appearances across four years, not even the most bitter of Gooners could accuse him of not putting in a shift in North London. The nature of modern football also means that players refusing to celebrate against former clubs is something of a hollow gesture but Adebayor definitely took things to the next level when his former club made their trip to Manchester early in the 2009/10 season. When you add in that Robin Van Persie, Alex Song and Cesc Fabregas all claimed that the forward had kicked, slapped and stamped on his three former teammates respectively during the game you can perhaps understand why his flamboyant celebration didn’t go down to well. It wouldn’t be the last time he would make his presence felt against his former employers.

Despite a decent first season in Manchester the arrival of Edin Dzeko and the form of Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli meant that Adebayor, and teammate Craig Bellamy, were encouraged to find first team opportunities elsewhere. A half season loan to Real Madrid was enough to persuade Tottenham Hotspur to take a similar ‘try before you buy’ approach and he repaid their faith with a debut goal against Wolves and two more in his first appearance at White Hart Lane in a 4-0 win over Liverpool. It wouldn’t be long before he met his old friends at Arsenal and Adebayor ensured his former employers suffered again with an assist for Rafael van der Vaart in a 2-1 victory for Spurs. After finishing his loan spell as Tottenham’s top scorer the deal was made permanent and Adebayor further endeared himself to Arsenal fans with an early strike in the first North London derby of the 2012/13 season. However, shortly after his high lunge on Gunners’ midfielder Santi Cazorla saw him sent off and Arsenal romped to a 5-2 win at the Emirates.

From then on Adebayor’s career somewhat petered out and, after being released by Spurs in 2015, he has enjoyed short spells at Crystal Palace, Istanbul Basaksehir, Kayserispor and Paraguayan side Olimpia. His 205 goals in 591 club appearances and 32 in 85 international caps showcase his undeniable talent so to boil his entire career down one single act of shithousing seems unfair. His then manager Mark Hughes attempted to defend his celebration by stating that Adebayor only wanted to be loved by the City fans and the striker himself apologised for his actions claiming he had merely been caught up in the moment. As a neutral in the whole affair I found Adebayor’s actions quite amusing and there are far worse things that have happened on and off football pitches than an over-enthusiastic knee slide. Should the Gleesome Threesome reunite anytime soon we’d be more than happy to make it an Awesome Foursome.