Southgate defends Adebayor antics

By
published

Middlesbrough manager Gareth Southgate has backed Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor in the wake of his controversial goal celebration against former club Arsenal last weekend. The FA have confirmed that they will be a studying a video of the former Monaco man's behaviour during the Blues' 4-2 win over the Gunners at Eastlands, during which the Togolese targetman sprinted the length of the pitch to celebrate scoring a goal in front of the visiting supporters.

NEWS: FA to investigate Adebayor conduct

But Southgate insists that Arsenal's fans should shoulder a degree of the blame, with many of them having abused the front-man earlier in the game and criticised his performances and attitude last season as the Gunners struggled to attain a top four finish.

"We have a strange ruling on celebrations,” he said.

“My dad would say why don't we just shake hands and run back to the centre circle like we used to, probably.

“But if you can't enjoy scoring your goals, then there's a problem.

“Now, I understand there is a line where you start to incite problems as well, so there is an important distinguishing factor there. But I stand in the dug-out and get abuse at away grounds, players get abuse at grounds and yet when the boot is on the other foot, we are quick to jump on people's backs.

“I don't go for people saying it's totally out of order. The wind-up goes both ways. If you give it, you have to take it.

“If people can't accept somebody celebrating, they maybe shouldn't give him the sort of stick he was getting during the game.”

NEWS: Roy Keane calls for leniency over Adebayor

Gregg Davies
Gregg Davies

Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.