Emmanuel Adebayor admits he may have made a mistake by forcing his way out of Arsenal.
Adebayor was showered with abuse by Arsenal fans on his latest return to the Emirates in Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace.
His every touch was greeted with deafening boos by the home supporters who have never forgiven the striker for the way he quit the club to join Manchester City in 2009.
Adebayor cemented his place as a villain in the eyes of Arsenal fans with an extraordinary celebration when he scored against his old club in his first game against them in September 2009.
After being jeered all game and hearing taunts about his mother Adebayor responded by running the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of Arsenal’s supporters.
He also stamped on former Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie’s face in the same game and was hit with a three-game ban and was involved in run-ins with Alex Song and Cesc Fabregas.
Adebayor said: “For me, at the end of the day I have to be happy about where I came from and what I have become today – I have to forget about all the haters.
“All the Arsenal fans boo me and when I look back I understand where everything went wrong but there are certain things in life you cannot come back to any more, you just look at it and say ‘okay I made a mistake’.
“We all do things at some stage of our lives that we are not supposed to do but the most important thing is to keep moving.
“It is not my first time coming back to play against Arsenal at the Emirates.
“You can see when I was on the bench and warming up and they were booing me I was just laughing, I cannot say I’m used to it because it is not good to get used to this kind of stuff.
“But at the end of the day it is funny, the weather was good, we were playing in London and 20 minutes from my house, I have to be happy. If I’m not happy then something is wrong.
“It is more than a pleasure coming back to this beautiful stadium and I really enjoyed myself and playing a part in our goal it is even better.”
Adebayor had the last laugh on the boo boys when he set up Palace’s equaliser to earn a morale-boosting point ahead of their league trip to Manchester United on Wednesday and FA Cup semi-final against Watford on Sunday.
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