Micah Richards claims Sherwood almost brought striker from Spurs to Aston Villa in 2015

Micah Richards has claimed that Aston Villa had agreed a deal to sign Emmanuel Adebayor from Tottenham in 2015 before the striker had a change of heart at the last minute.

Adebayor had an outstanding first season on loan at Spurs during the 2011/12 campaign under Harry Redknapp before the Lilywhites took up the option to make the deal permanent.

However, the striker did not have the same sort of impact under Andre Villas-Boas and fell down the pecking order when Roberto Soldado arrived in 2014.

The Togo international had a mini-revival when Tim Sherwood replaced Villas-Boas as the interim coach but the striker was part of the bomb squad (The Athletic) who were frozen out by Mauricio Pochettino in the Argentine’s first season at the club.

Richards has revealed that Sherwood tried to bring Adebayor to Villa when he took over at Villa Park and almost succeeded in doing so.

However, the striker allegedly decided against the move after posing in a Villa shirt ahead of the official announcement.

The former Man City defender said on the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast (11/04/22): “He (Adebayor) came to Villa, he signed, we had him in a shirt.

“Tim Sherwood was the manager, he’d had him at Spurs and he said he wanted to get the best out of him.

“He signed, got the picture of him in a shirt. The next day he said ‘it’s not for me’. He just changed his mind!”

Spurs Web Opinion

Looking at how Adebayor fared at Crystal Palace the subsequent season before moving to Turkey, Villa probably dodged the bullet at the time. However, in his pomp, Adebayor was a handful for any defence and always contributed to the team even when he did not score.

Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Related Topics

Have something to tell us about this article? Let us know