Adebayor threatens to pull plug on Tottenham move

Emmanuel Adebayor has threatened to pull the plug on his move to Tottenham unless he is directly handed the £4 million transfer fee that has been agreed with Manchester City.

 Sources have said that the Togo international has been offered a package that matches his current £170,000 City deal after the Premier League champions agreed to subsidise his basic Spurs salary on top of a £5m signing-on fee.

 It can be revealed that the transfer fee negotiated by the two clubs to take Adebayor to White Hart Lane has now been lowered from £5m to £4m.

 But the 28-year-old has told City he wants to be directly handed the entire £4m fee and effectively leave the club on a free transfer. “He wants to punish Manchester City for how he thinks they have treated him,” a source said.

 “He wants a free transfer and has told them that if he doesn’t get it he will stay at Manchester City for two more years.”

 The latest twist in the saga comes 48 hours after Tottenham and City thought the deal was on the brink of completion following Adebayor’s season-long loan at White Hart Lane.

 Andre Villas-Boas, the Tottenham manager, has been pushing club bosses to clinch the deal as he looks to improve his strike force by signing two forwards this summer, with Jermain Defoe the only senior striker currently in the Spurs squad.

 Phil Smith, the agent who took Adebayor from Arsenal to City in a £25m deal in 2009, predicted in a radio interview earlier this week that the Spurs deal could still hit the buffers.

 “I was involved in Adebayor going to Manchester City from Arsenal and he is quite ruthless when it comes to getting what he wants,” Smith said. “He got a very good deal and quite clearly he wants his pound of flesh, not only on the way in but on the way out.

 “And I think it's a deal that will die on its backside. Who is it that is going to come and give moneybags Adebayor the money that he wants other than moneybags QPR and I don't think they'd even be interested in him.”

 Adebayor returned to training at City’s Carrington training ground earlier this month to train with the youth team before taking a break as he waited for his move to Spurs.

 Adebayor played a key role for Spurs on loan last season under Harry Redknapp, scoring 17 Premier League goals and providing 11 assists in 33 appearances.

 The forward has been frozen out at City since lining up against Red Bull Salzburg in a Europa League tie in December 2010.

 He has made just 45 appearances for the club in all competitions and spent the second half of the 2010-11 season on loan at Real Madrid before his year at Spurs.

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