Adebayor: I will celebrate if I score against Tottenham

Crystal Palace striker Emmanuel Adebayor insisted he would have no problem celebrating a goal against former club Tottenham in their FA Cup fifth-round tie on Sunday.

Adebayor will return to White Hart Lane for the first time since he was released by Tottenham in September last year after falling out with the club. 

However, despite spending over four seasons with Tottenham, the 31-year-old said he would not think twice about celebrating against his ex-club.

“I play football, why am I not going to celebrate against Tottenham?” Adebayor said. “Today I don’t play for Tottenham. 

“Scoring goals is what I do best in my career. If I score against Tottenham, trust me, I’m going to celebrate. 

“If I’m on the pitch and I score and I’m not going to celebrate I would rather tell the manager I’m not going to play because what is the point of scoring goals and not celebrating?

“For me, apart from having my baby, the best thing is whenever I score my next goal. So if I score against Tottenham, I don’t know why I shouldn’t celebrate.

“I had my good times at Tottenham and I had my bad moment. Today they are having a good time as a club, I’m very happy for them, but I’m going there to play against them.”

Adebayor also took a shot at Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy for making his exit at the club “complicated”. 

“With the club itself, it wasn’t a good relationship with the chairman, Daniel Levy, as he made everything complicated,” Adebayor added. 

“But at the end of the day, I know where I am from and if you want something, you have to stand strong for it, and I stand strong for what I think.

“My relationship with [Mauricio] Pochettino was beautiful. I think we have a very, very good relationship with man-to-man conversations. We always talk and he told me at the time: ‘Emmanuel, I can’t count on you anymore,’ and I understood that. 

“I realised my time at Tottenham was over and I moved on.”