Emmanuel Adebayor completed his move to Crystal Palace on Tuesday, and appears to have taken the move as an opportunity to send a veiled message to some of his former employers.
But what exactly is the Togo frontman going for after being denied his favourite shirt?
The West African wore the No. 10 shirt during his time at Tottenham Hotspur—a spell which lurched between the sublime and the ridiculous—but that was never going to be on the cards at Selhurst Park. Indeed, with star man Yannick Bolasie in possession of this number, it would have taken the DR Congo attacker’s departure—surely—for £77k-per-week Ade to have picked up this number.
Despite the likes of eight, 17, 20 or…our old favourite…24, being available, the 31-year-old plumped for number 25.
A strange choice, you might think, well…think again!
Indeed, this is a number that has followed the forward throughout his career, although it’s hard to know exactly what the striker’s going for by choosing it again.
Is he aiming a nod towards—and perhaps inspire himself to recreate—the golden days at Arsenal when, wearing the shirt, he established himself as a lethal Premier League frontman?
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Could he be aiming a snub at City—the club he left so acrimoniously—and who once paid a whopping £25 million to take him the Etihad Stadium, making him the then-most expensive African player of all time?