Cry Baby Adebayor to Start for Togo

His coach has called him a cry baby and had to be restrained from confronting him on the team bus. His team’s captain has said he should be sent home. A nation of fans is disappointed that he opted out of starting Togo’s African Nations Cup opener.

What is Emmanuel Adebayor’s punishment?

He gets to start for Togo on Wednesday against Cameroon. Does this guy get second chances or what?

First he was bounced from his club team Monaco for his repeated failure to show up for practice. His punishment was to be sent to Arsenal. And now he gets another shot with a Togo team that can’t afford to play without his talent but that might just be undermined by his selfishness.

Coach Stephan Keshi is in a tough position. With a loss against Congo and the daunting task of having to play Cameroon and Angola, his team could easily bow out of the African Nations Cup without a point. This could put Keshi on the hot seat since Togo’s CAN expectations are quite high after qualifying for the World Cup.

But playing Adebayor at this point only will weaken Keshi’s authority with the rest of the team. If a player does not want to represent his country in one of the biggest tournaments in the world, he should be sent home.

Even if Adebayor scores tomorrow the damage has been done for Togo. Hawks’ fans can only hope that the petulant superstar striker gets his head screwed on straight before Germany this summer.