Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino has dismissed claims that he has looked at the possibility of sending Emmanuel Adebayor away from the club on a permanent basis.
The striker sealed a permanent £ 5 million switch from Manchester City only a year ago, but he has not been a favourite at White Hart Lane. His recent fallout with the supporters – after claiming that Spurs would rather play away from home due to the harsh criticism at the Lane – has certainly not helped matters. Adebayor continues to be a major pull – given his goalscoring abilities – in the Premier League.
Clubs like West Ham and West Brom were interested in signing him while QPR were very close to concluding the deal. It is widely believed that the exit of Harry Redknapp from Loftus Road was to do with the club missing out on signing Adebayor. After struggling for goals in the first half of the season, Pochettino has found a reliable goalscorer in the form of Harry Kane. It is looking highly unlikely that Adebayor will get any game time with the England under 21 international in spectacular form. Despite this, Pochettino has revealed that he had no plans of selling Adebayor during January. The striker earns around £ 110,000 per week and it is a major stumbling block in making the player leave.
“I knew he could go and I would have been happy to play with two strikers [Harry Kane and Roberto Soldado] for the rest of the season. Possibly, we could have used [Nacer] Chadli or [Erik] Lamela [up front] but the first thing was that I wanted to keep Adebayor. It is important to clarify that.It’s important that the fans forget the past. We are in a key moment. We need to put out the bad things, the bad energy and try to help each other,” said Pochettino.