Song has a score to settle with Adebayor
315 comments April 23rd, 2010
After our previous league encounter with Manchester City, Alex Song was one of the more outspoken players:
“Ade was a ‘big brother’. In London, I was almost living at his place, and he at mine. Once he went to City, it’s true that our relationship was not what it had been before. I called him two or three times, and he didn’t call me back.
I’m not going to force him to do it. And I’m not going to have a laugh with him when I see him in the tunnel.
Afterwards, on the pitch, he started to kick. He kicked everyone. That’s not normal! He was aggressive. There was a free-kick in their favour and he slapped me. Coming from him – I couldn’t believe it.
He disappointed me because the person I knew was not the person I met again that day.”
Adebayor is not the person Song once knew. On that day in Manchester, he was twisted by bitterness in to a snarling, slapping, face-raking imbecile. Whether or not the harrowing events of the past few months – including that terrorist attack on his Togolese team bus – have given Adebayor a much needed sense of perspective remains to be seen. Even if he has mellowed, this game will inevitably bring up the tensions that bubbled to the surface with ugly effect in September.
Adebayor disrespected Song – a player who had viewed him not only as a mentor but a friend. So it’s not surprising that Song has recovered from injury at the last minute. The Cameroon midfielder has proven himself to be a brave, combative, quality player in this season, with a character and temperament more befitting of an Arsenal player than his one-time friend.
Tomorrow, there will be only be one winner. And only one Song.
