Alan Pardew: Emmanuel Adebayor can give us X-factor

Alan Pardew believes Emmanuel Adebayor can provide Crystal Palace with an “x-factor” until the end of the season, and revealed he felt his chance to manage the striker had slipped away.

Adebayor signed a short-term contract at Palace on Tuesday to finally join Pardew at Palace, 10 years after resisting the manager’s attempts to bring him to West Ham to instead sign for Arsenal, and after he had also considered bringing him to Newcastle.

When the striker joined Manchester City from Arsenal in 2009 for £25 million, having scored 62 goals for the London club, Pardew had just been appointed Southampton’s manager in League One and his reputation was in decline after a fruitless spell at Charlton.