• Premier League

Adebayor: We'll make Man City fight each other

ESPN staff
April 19, 2013

Tottenham striker Emmanuel Abebayor claims his former Manchester City team-mates are prone to infighting ahead of Sunday's crucial Premier League game at White Hart Lane.

Adebayor secured a permanent move to Spurs last summer after falling out of favour with City boss Roberto Mancini, and while he was keen to lavish praise on his former employers, he suspects there are still cracks to be exposed in their make-up.

Spurs need to get back to winning ways when they take on City as they have slipped out of the top four in the Premier League. Adebayor claims the weekend's clash will be decisive in their push for a Champions League return.

"I was there [at City] and whenever things are not going their way there will definitely be a fight or an argument on the pitch and that is how we can take them down," Adebayor is quoted as saying in the Daily Mirror and Guardian newspapers.

"This will be the decisive game for us. If we win, the confidence will be back, definitely. We will have a chance to finish in the top four. From the beginning of the season, our target was to finish in the top four.

"We have a great squad, great players. We just have to believe in our quality. Now we are out of the Europa League, I cannot say it is a good thing, but we have to focus on the league.

"We have six games to go and we tell ourselves in the dressing room that we have six finals. We have to play them as finals and if we find a way to be in the Champions League, for us it's a very good season."

Adebayor cost Manchester City a reported £25 million when they signed him from Arsenal in the summer of 2009 and they sold him for a trimmed down fee last summer, after a successful season-long loan deal at Spurs.

While the Togo hitman hints at a breakdown in his relationship with City boss Mancini prior to his departure, it seems as if his affinity for the Manchester club runs deep.

"Man City is a sacred club," Adebayor said. "I have a huge respect for the players. I've got players there that I can call family. Yaya Toure, Kolo Toure, Vincent Kompany.

"It's going to be important for me to prove how good I am, but I don't have any pressure that says I have to beat Man City because of the way they treated me, because they bought me expensively and sold me for cheap.

"Mancini? We are all human beings. We are all adults. Things happened in Man City. I cannot tell you what happened and what did not happen. For me today, I move on. He has moved on. I wish him the best of luck.

"For me now, Mancini is just a manager I respect, just like Arsene Wenger, like Harry Redknapp and that's it. Everything stops there. I have to do my job for Tottenham."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
Close