Adebayor up for Premier League challenge

LONDON - Manchester City striker Emmanuel Adebayor has admitted that he faces a fight to be in the club’s starting line up for Monday’s Premier League game against Liverpool.

Adebayor was left out of Roberto Mancini’s starting line-up for last week’s opening game against Tottenham Hotspur, following the arrival of Italian Mario Balotelli.

Balotelli arrived from Inter Milan in a 24 million pound move ast week

“I don’t want to look too far into the future. Who knows, by January maybe the manager will tell me to leave, or maybe I will ask to leave,” News of The World quoted Adebayor, as saying.

“This is football and I have learned many things playing this game. I was a little bit upset at being on the bench at Spurs, but I had a chat with Mancini which was good.”

“Managers can change. Today they love you then you think you are going to be moving. You have to adapt,” he added.

The 26-year-old further believes that his near-death experience at the Africa Cup of Nations in January has made him more difficult to manage.

Adebayor was almost killed when the Togo team bus was shot at by Angolan separatists just days before the tournament.

“I have the chance to be alive when I could have been dead after what happened at the Cup of Nations. This can make me a bit awkward as I know what I want now and my priority is always going to be my family,” Adebayor said. (ANI)