I must admit that there were not many Arsenal fans that were happy with Emmanuel Adebayor when he forced Arsene Wenger to sell him to Manchester City, and I admit he was subject to quite a lot of abuse for deserting the Gunners purely for cash, and I personally think he deserved a lot of it.
The abuse continued for the rest of the season and was particularly nasty when the Togo international took to the field to face the Gunners. Adebayor was desparate to score against us and he got his wish, and he clearly had no problem with showing the Arsenal fans exactly how much he hated us. He sprinted all the way to the Arsenal supporters end and did a knee-slide in front of us with hhis arms outstretched in celebration.
The FA took a dim view of hiss actions and fined him £25,000, but he has now admitted that he didn’t care how much they fined him he just wanted to get back at the Arsenal fans. “After it had happened, I was told the FA wanted to slap me with a huge fine,” Adebayor admitted. “Even if I would have had to pay two million euros I would have done it. I was not going to stay there and hear five thousand people insult my family, even though they had nothing to do with it.
“At that moment, I felt like I weighed 20 kilos, even though before the match, I felt like I weighed 2000.
“When I started running, Wright-Phillips tried to catch up with me. Seeing as he was small, I floored him with a little shoulder-to-shoulder.
“Then there was the very slow Gareth Barry, who I got past with a light feint.
“Kolo Toure was in the centre circle, and he understood that he had to let me do my thing.
“When I slid on my knees and spread my arms out, I felt untouchable.
“People were throwing everything at me – their phones, water bottles but I did not flinch, everything went right past me.
“‘Whoosh, whoosh’, just like in the movies!
“It feels great like being imprisoned for years and then suddenly hearing someone tell you, ‘My brother, the door is there, walk out. Now you are free.’
“That is what I felt – liberation.”
To me, all that showed was that Gooners were right to feel about him that way. He has since proved many times that he was simply a mercenary that could never replicate the form he showed for Arsenal. He may have hated Arsenal fans, but I can assure him that Arsenal fans hated him just as much, if not more…
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