MARK HUGHES, the Manchester City manager, says he has no misgivings about playing Emmanuel Adebayor against Arsenal in their quarter-final tomorrow, despite the striker’s incendiary behaviour when he faced his old club earlier in the season.
Adebayor, signed by City for €27million in August, was banned for three matches by the English Football Association for raking his studs down Robin van Persie’s face in what the Arsenal player described as a “mindless and malicious” stamp. A disciplinary commission found Adebayor guilty of a charge of improper conduct for having celebrated scoring City’s third goal in a 4-2 win by running the entire length of the pitch to goad the Arsenal supporters, some of whom threw missiles on to the pitch during several minutes of unrest.
One steward needed lengthy medical treatment after being struck by a flying object and Adebayor later issued a public apology, admitting that he had “let emotion take over” because of his grievances about the way Arsenal’s supporters had regarded him during his final season at the London club.
He was fined €27,000 and given a two-match ban, suspended for a year, but Hughes does not believe the incident will affect the player’s thinking when he faces Arsene Wenger’s team for a second time.
“There is no feeling he won’t play as a consequence of what happened last time. In fact, he’s more likely to play because he had such a huge influence on the game,” Hughes said. “He has made a statement about what happened before. It was an emotional time and it has been well documented and discussed at length. But it’s in the past now.”
Adebayor’s presence, nonetheless, will make it a potentially tense occasion, to be refereed by Chris Foy, though some of the sting has been removed because Van Persie will be absent through injury. The same applies to Nicklas Bendtner, another of Adebayor’s previous colleagues who openly disliked the Togo international.
Hughes, however, does not appear to have ever considered leaving out Adebayor or, indeed, reminding him that he will be under extra scrutiny. The Manchester City manager is more concerned about the player regaining the form that saw him score in each of City’s first four league games before his suspension. “He scored a good goal at Liverpool [two weekends ago]; a fantastic header,” Hughes said. “If he’s playing well and scoring he’s going to have an impact on this game.”
Yaya Toure’s agent, Dmitri Seluk, has said the midfielder would be open to a January move to City if he does not regain a first-team place at Barcelona: “Of course we are not happy. It’s not normal. He is not playing and it’s strange for him not to have (more) minutes. If a club like Manchester City or Chelsea come in, we are open to negotiating with them.”
Guardian Service
