It was not so long ago that Emannuel Adebayor was a forgotten man at Tottenham Hotspurs. When Adebayor arrived on loan from Manchester City in the 2011/12 season, he had a huge impact at the club and scored 18 goals in a all competitions as well as contributing 12 assists in all competitions. These were stats that convinced Tottenham Hotspurs to make the move permanent. It cost Tottenham £5 million to complete the signing of Adebayor in the summer of 2012. And it was actually Villas Boas who made the move permanent.
However, under Andre Villas Boas, Adebayor was not as prolific as he was the previous season. Throughout the entire 2012/13 season, Adebayor only contributed a total of 8 goals and 1 assist. Those stats left him the shadows at Tottenham for the 1st half of this season and so he became a forgotten man as he was made to train with the reserves on numerous occassions.
But after Villas Boas was sacked by Daniel Levy following the 5-0 thrashing, by Liverpool, Tim Sherwood was appointed as manager until a manager could be found. But Sherwood grasped the opportunites with both hands and, with the help of Adebayor, he has transformed Tottenham’s season completely.
Since Adebayor’s introduction to the team this season, he has scored 5 goals in 7 appearances and also contributed 2 assists. He is in inspired form at the moment and has helped Tottenham claw themselves back into the race for a Champions League spot.
He has now spoken out about the hardship he experienced under the managerial reign of Andre Villas Boas, under whom he did not play for this season. In a recent interview with The Sun he admitted, “I was right at the bottom of the hole. Even people from my own country, people from my own family, criticised me. It can’t get worse than that.”
“They said, ‘You’re rubbish and whatever you did before in your career was luck’. But the new coach (Tim Sherwood) trusted me. He gave me the key to all the doors of the club and said, ‘Do what you want to do and make yourself at home’.”
It is fair to say that Adebayor seems to be back to his best and his recent display of 2 goals against Swansea mean that he has overtaken Dennis Bergkamp in the all-time Premier League goalscoring charts.
