Redknapp confident Ade won’t do this again

Harry Redknapp is confident Emmanuel Adebayor will be able to keep his cool during his first outing at the Emirates Stadium as a Tottenham player.

The north London rivals issued a joint statement on Thursday calling for calm ahead of tomorrow’s hotly-anticipated derby, which has been given an extra edge due to Adebayor’s colourful history with the Gunners.

Spurs won the reverse fixture 2-1 back in October, but the game was marred by a series of unsavoury chants from both sets of fans.

A section of the away support sparked outrage by directing chants about the gun attack on Togo players in Angola towards Adebayor, while some Spurs fans directed personal abuse at Arsene Wenger.

The Arsenal fans’ hostility towards Adebayor stretches back to 2009 when, shortly after leaving the club for Manchester City, he sprinted the length of the pitch at Eastlands to celebrate a goal in front of the away supporters in his first game against the London club.

Given that he now plays for Arsenal’s fiercest rivals, Adebayor can expect even more of a barracking tomorrow, but Redknapp is sure his star striker will be able to handle the pressure.

“I suppose he will get some stick, that goes with the territory when you go back to your old clubs, but I’m sure he can handle it,’’ Redknapp said.

“Hopefully he will keep his cool and that’s what he needs to do.

“It is difficult [for him]. I came out and stuck up for him last time because he was getting almighty abuse.

“Okay, he over-reacted, but if someone is giving you abuse and you are taking it and taking it, you will react at some stage.’’

The Spurs boss echoed the two clubs’ call for tomorrow’s match to be remembered for the right reasons.

“I don’t know why people have to shout abuse and filth at people,” Redknapp said.

“I don’t understand it. I hope they can go and enjoy the game, get behind their team and get on with the game. Don’t go there to abuse other people. That doesn’t make sense.”

Redknapp was particularly unhappy with the chants about Adebayor.

“Unbelievable. It’s crazy,’’ he said, shaking his head.

“No one deserves that. It’s absolute filth. Having seen boys get killed like that, get shot, and then for people to start singing about it...’’

Redknapp has always been a keen advocate of the traditional values of football but his confidence in the game has been shaken by offensive chanting, some of which has been directed at him lately.

“It’s the worst thing about the modern game. I hate it,” he said. “It gets worse. It’s scary what some people chant.’’

The two clubs come up against each other in heavily contrasting form.

Arsenal may have been north London’s top club for the best part of the last two decades but they currently trail third-place by 10 points in the Premier League and go in to the game on the back of a humiliating 4-0 trouncing at AC Milan — where Spurs won last season.

Arsenal’s recent failings have led to calls for Wenger’s 16-year stewardship of the club to come to an end but Redknapp thinks that would be a foolish idea.

He said: “They can’t do any better than what they’ve got. They can’t replace Wenger.

“I couldn’t criticise him in any way, shape or form after the job he has done there, which has been amazing.

“They have just had a more difficult year. He has brought them Champions League football for how many years? Fifteen is it?

“Everyone has taken stick, even Sir Alex Ferguson, but Wenger is top class.

“Having said that, let’s hope we can make it a miserable weekend for them!”