Nicklas Bendtner became something of a cult hero among football fans during his playing days – his nickname of ‘Lord’ will tell you that – but he didn’t always see eye to eye with former teammates.
Bendtner, who officially announced his retirement from professional football today (Thursday), represented the Gunners for nine years overall, despite a host of loan moves away from north London.
The Dane scored 45 goals in all competitions across that time and played with some of the best players Gunners fans have seen. One man, however, didn’t catch his eye – Emmanuel Adebayor.
The Dane played alongside Adebayor for around two years, with the Togolese forward joining Arsenal in 2006 from AS Monaco before moving to Manchester City in 2009.
The two former Gunners strikers had a spat on the pitch during their team’s 5-1 Carling Cup defeat to Tottenham back in 2008 and Bendtner, when speaking to talkSPORT in October last year, opened up on that altercation, as well as their general relationship.
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“We never liked each other,” he said. “Apart from that I got on with most people.
“We sat next to each other in the changing room. He was 25, I was 26, from the first moment we saw each other it was just a bad vibe. That never changed.”
Bendtner added: “We had some small bust-ups in the changing room and that quite big one in Tottenham where it sort of blew out of proportion,” the 33-year-old said.
“We got hammered 5-1, we were so bad and the disappointment of letting the fans and team down just got out of hand between us.
“We had that sting on the pitch then we had a little bit in the dressing room and then the next day we were in [Arsene] Wenger’s office getting fined.
“It got explained how we had to learn how to deal with each other on a professional level and on a personal level.
“It was actually quite a good way of learning how to work with someone that you really disliked.”
This is not the first we’ve heard about Bendtner’s feud with Adebayor, with the latter speaking about it back in 2019.
The former Real Madrid loanee also namedropped Robin van Persie and admitted there was “tension” between the pair.
“Why would I come to an interview, lie to people and say Van Persie is my best friend? He has his character and I have mine. There was tension,” Adebayor said to the Daily Mail.
“I’m a free guy, I come to every club, walk into the changing room and sing.. I danced with Thierry Henry and had huge respect for Dennis Bergkamp.
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“But at Arsenal, when you walk into the dressing room, there is a shoe rack. You take off your trainers and wear the club sandals into the dressing room. Bendtner walked in with his own shoes twice.
“I said: ‘Bendtner, there is a law here and nobody is above it.’ He was younger than me and barely playing. We are bigger than you but nobody else walks in with Prada, Gucci…
“He said ‘I don’t care’. I said ‘Don’t do it again’. The next day, he did the same and we jumped into a fight.'”