Emanuel Adebayor may have signed for Crystal Palace this week, but the roots of the move stretch back far beyond the signing of forms.
In fact, a couple of chance meetings between the striker and Palace co-chairman Steve Parish and boss Alan Pardew last summer were key to the transfer taking place.
Adebayor has signed with Palace until the end of the season as Pardew looks to reignite a strikeforce that has failed to find the back of the net in six Premier League outings, save for an own goal in last weekend’s defeat to Tottenham Hotspur.
The striker has the pedigree with a career 134 goals in 299 league starts around Europe, and he was on the radar at Palace well before the current goal drought.
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Parish said: “We looked at a move last summer, and we even thought about it in the January window last year – so it is something that we have chatted about.
“We bumped into him a couple of times over the summer. First I bumped into him with Alan in Paris and second I bumped into him in Louis Vuitton on Bond Street.
“I was like ‘When will you come and play for us, Ade?’ and sometimes these things are like that and they don’t happen overnight.”
Adebayor’s loan deal will keep him at Palace until the end of the season, but Parish is hopeful that deal could be extended into next season – but such a deal would bring fresh problems.
He said: “If Emanuel puts in the performances that make consider next season, then it is likely that other clubs will notice that form and realise what they missed out on this time round.
“Let’s just hope that is the situation we find ourselves in, and see what comes of it.”
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