Tottenham striker Emmanuel Adebayor insists he won’t be affected by the
abusive chants from Arsenal fans during Sunday’s north London derby.
Adebayor
has had to endure plenty of taunts from Arsenal supporters since he
left the Gunners to join Manchester City in 2009, but the abuse reached a
new low with songs about the gun attack on Togo’s team bus during the
2010 African Nations Cup in Angola.
The 27-year-old survived the
terrorist attack but three members of the Togo party were killed,
including Adebayor’s friend Stanislas Ocloo, who was the team’s media
officer.
Spurs boss Harry Redknapp and Arsenal manager Arsene
Wenger have condemned the chants, but Adebayor is adamant they had no
impact on him during Spurs’ 2-1 victory at White Hart Lane.
He told The Sun: “The songs that they sung about me were very bad, but was I surprised? No. Disappointed? Yes.
“Obviously it was all meant to hurt me, to upset me, to anger me.
“But
those chants won’t ever have an effect on me. I’ve been through too
many difficult times to let a minority of people singing silly songs
affect my performance.
“But if I can survive the bullets in Angola then a few mindless insults will have little impact.”
Adebayor,
who joined Spurs on loan from City earlier this season, knows Arsenal
fans will never forgive him for celebrating a City goal against the
Gunners by running the length of the pitch before sliding to his knees
in front of his former club’s supporters.
But he is still saddened that they would stoop so low to try to get back at him.
“It’s very sad how the memory of something so awful could be used in such an awful way,” he added.
“To
be honest I wasn’t surprised by it, I had been expecting something and
it didn’t affect me at all. I have learnt a lot in the last few years
and the best response is a positive performance.
“I just blocked
it all out and concentrated on playing my best. I just hope that people
remember this game for the right reasons and how well we played as it
was being shown all around the world.
“It’d be a great shame if
they just remember the stupid songs and not the great football. I’m so
glad I kept my dignity in the face of people behaving like that.”