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<a class="postlink" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/sep/11/emmanuel-adebayor-manchester-city" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009 ... ester-city</a>
First there was the Carlos Tevez "Welcome to Manchester" billboard, a piece of provocation that famously pricked Sir Alex Ferguson's temper glands. Now the latest addition to Manchester City's "This is our City" campaign: a huge graphic of Emmanuel Adebayor covering Hallé Square in the Arndale Centre. No digs at the neighbours this time but another show of strength all the same.
The choice of Adebayor as City's new poster boy is revealing because, if Tevez was the signing that symbolised the club's new ambitions, it is the £25m recruit from Arsenal who has been the star of the show so far, with three goals in City's first three Premier League games. And here's the thing about the illustrator Michael Gillette's design: Adebayor is smiling, showing the sunrise of a smile that seemed to disappear during that final season at Arsenal, when his form deserted him and fans accused him of being more obsessed with getting a fancy move – or, failing that, a pay rise – than doing well for the club that had given him his big chance.
The two sides meet at the City of Manchester stadium on Saturday and it does not need long in Adebayor's company to realise that he is determined to ram home his point. Adebayor, it quickly becomes apparent, can vividly remember what it was like to hear thousands of Arsenal fans turn on him.
"These sort of things stay with you in your heart and it will stay with me not just for the rest of my career but the rest of my life." And his return to form since leaving London? "What you can see now is a confident player," he says. "I feel loved again and that's why I'm smiling again."
The inference is clear. Adebayor had come to feel unloved at Arsenal, not by Arsène Wenger (he is quick to emphasise that his relationship with his former manager is "not damaged") but certainly by the supporters, who felt betrayed by conflicting messages about his future – clumsy at best, and seen by many as a flagrant and transparent attempt to market his potential availability.
The man himself will argue passionately that he did nothing wrong: "People need to understand that if you are playing really well, big clubs will come in for you." He feels he was "hated", and there are several occasions when he points out the crucial difference between now and then.
"After just a week at City, I could feel that the supporters believed in me and were willing me to do well," he says. "They sing songs about me and they love me. I'm so happy because I'm really enjoying myself again. I certainly feel very at home, very comfortable. The staff and the supporters have made me feel very welcome and I think that is being reflected on the pitch. Now I want to repay that faith and love."
Early as it is, his goals have certainly done that, from the moment three minutes into his debut that he swept the ball past Paul Robinson in the Blackburn Rovers goal. "Scoring so early was good for my confidence because I hadn't scored in any of our pre-season friendlies and people can be quick to jump on you," he reflects. "I was delighted because it brought my confidence back to maximum levels."
Since then he has scored the winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers and repeated the trick at Portsmouth in City's last game. "There's been a lot of negative things said about him as a player and a person, but you can only judge people on how you find them and a lot of the things that were said I've not seen," says Mark Hughes, the City manager. "It's clear he's happy where he is. He's enjoying what's around him, enjoying playing with good players again, and the fans love him, which is something that was missing from his life."
Hughes had done his homework. Leaving Arsenal, his club for the previous three and a half years, was still a "wrench" for Adebayor. But he also remembers asking his former Arsenal team-mate Kanu for advice and realising there was no way back.
"He said if the fans hated me there was no way back for me because it wouldn't matter what I did in the future, they would always feel that way about me," Adebayor says. "I hadn't done or said anything about leaving Arsenal but the fans had made up their minds. It hurts when you are at a club you loved, a place where you think you might want to end your career, and things go badly.
"It was strange because I was such a happy boy there. I always gave my best for the team. I even remember a game two years ago when the boss asked me to play even though I had a hamstring injury. So I played for the team, worked hard and scored, but afterwards people were interested only in me being linked with Barcelona. Why? I couldn't stop the media speculating. I see Cesc Fábregas being linked with Barcelona but there are no problems for him, so what is the difference? It's something I will never understand."
----------------------------
So he seems happy enough.
First there was the Carlos Tevez "Welcome to Manchester" billboard, a piece of provocation that famously pricked Sir Alex Ferguson's temper glands. Now the latest addition to Manchester City's "This is our City" campaign: a huge graphic of Emmanuel Adebayor covering Hallé Square in the Arndale Centre. No digs at the neighbours this time but another show of strength all the same.
The choice of Adebayor as City's new poster boy is revealing because, if Tevez was the signing that symbolised the club's new ambitions, it is the £25m recruit from Arsenal who has been the star of the show so far, with three goals in City's first three Premier League games. And here's the thing about the illustrator Michael Gillette's design: Adebayor is smiling, showing the sunrise of a smile that seemed to disappear during that final season at Arsenal, when his form deserted him and fans accused him of being more obsessed with getting a fancy move – or, failing that, a pay rise – than doing well for the club that had given him his big chance.
The two sides meet at the City of Manchester stadium on Saturday and it does not need long in Adebayor's company to realise that he is determined to ram home his point. Adebayor, it quickly becomes apparent, can vividly remember what it was like to hear thousands of Arsenal fans turn on him.
"These sort of things stay with you in your heart and it will stay with me not just for the rest of my career but the rest of my life." And his return to form since leaving London? "What you can see now is a confident player," he says. "I feel loved again and that's why I'm smiling again."
The inference is clear. Adebayor had come to feel unloved at Arsenal, not by Arsène Wenger (he is quick to emphasise that his relationship with his former manager is "not damaged") but certainly by the supporters, who felt betrayed by conflicting messages about his future – clumsy at best, and seen by many as a flagrant and transparent attempt to market his potential availability.
The man himself will argue passionately that he did nothing wrong: "People need to understand that if you are playing really well, big clubs will come in for you." He feels he was "hated", and there are several occasions when he points out the crucial difference between now and then.
"After just a week at City, I could feel that the supporters believed in me and were willing me to do well," he says. "They sing songs about me and they love me. I'm so happy because I'm really enjoying myself again. I certainly feel very at home, very comfortable. The staff and the supporters have made me feel very welcome and I think that is being reflected on the pitch. Now I want to repay that faith and love."
Early as it is, his goals have certainly done that, from the moment three minutes into his debut that he swept the ball past Paul Robinson in the Blackburn Rovers goal. "Scoring so early was good for my confidence because I hadn't scored in any of our pre-season friendlies and people can be quick to jump on you," he reflects. "I was delighted because it brought my confidence back to maximum levels."
Since then he has scored the winner against Wolverhampton Wanderers and repeated the trick at Portsmouth in City's last game. "There's been a lot of negative things said about him as a player and a person, but you can only judge people on how you find them and a lot of the things that were said I've not seen," says Mark Hughes, the City manager. "It's clear he's happy where he is. He's enjoying what's around him, enjoying playing with good players again, and the fans love him, which is something that was missing from his life."
Hughes had done his homework. Leaving Arsenal, his club for the previous three and a half years, was still a "wrench" for Adebayor. But he also remembers asking his former Arsenal team-mate Kanu for advice and realising there was no way back.
"He said if the fans hated me there was no way back for me because it wouldn't matter what I did in the future, they would always feel that way about me," Adebayor says. "I hadn't done or said anything about leaving Arsenal but the fans had made up their minds. It hurts when you are at a club you loved, a place where you think you might want to end your career, and things go badly.
"It was strange because I was such a happy boy there. I always gave my best for the team. I even remember a game two years ago when the boss asked me to play even though I had a hamstring injury. So I played for the team, worked hard and scored, but afterwards people were interested only in me being linked with Barcelona. Why? I couldn't stop the media speculating. I see Cesc Fábregas being linked with Barcelona but there are no problems for him, so what is the difference? It's something I will never understand."
----------------------------
So he seems happy enough.