EMMANUEL ADEBAYOR was at the peak of his powers during a three-and-a-half-season stint at Arsenal.
His 24-goal Premier League tally in 2007-08 was bettered only by Cristiano Ronaldo – the same Ronaldo who joined Real Madrid in a world record deal the following year.
And he rounded off his Gunners career with 62 goals in 142 games.
Having arrived in North London from Monaco in a deal worth around £3million, Adebayor is hailed as one of Arsene Wenger’s best buys.
But not everyone was pleased to see him posing with the red and white shirt.
Nicklas Bendtner certainly wasn’t.
The Arsenal bad boy has never lacked self-confidence and that became apparent in 2006.
Adebayor was being unveiled as a new Gunner and Bendtner had only just made his first-team debut, at 17 years old, a few weeks beforehand.
But he couldn’t help feeling cheated that Wenger had brought in new blood up front when he was primed and ready.
Matthew Connolly was a prominent Arsenal youth team player at the time and buddied up with Bendtner when they were teenagers.
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Connolly told SunSport: “We’d be in team meetings and he’d look like he had the hump.
“[Youth team coach] Steve Bould asked him what was wrong and he said, ‘I don’t understand why we signed Adebayor, I’m here, I’m ready to play’. We were only 17 at the time and nowhere near the first team.
“Steve would give him a bit of a rollicking about it, tell him he used to play against strikers like Alan Shearer, and Nick would be like, ‘I’m better than Alan Shearer’.
“It’s just because he believes in himself. People used to mix up his confidence for arrogance. I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
“Wojciech Szczesny was the same. He used to go away with Poland when he was 16 or 17 and say to their press that he should have been ahead of Jens Lehmann, which is obviously ludicrous, but they believe in themselves. Nick was the same.”
Bendtner outlasted Adebayor at Arsenal but couldn’t quite match his goals total – the Dane’s 47 falling 15 short despite playing 29 more games.
Adebayor went on to play for Manchester City, Real Madrid and Arsenal’s bitter rivals, Tottenham, before retiring in 2020 following a brief stint in Paraguay.
