Emmanuel Adebayor is attempting to melt into the surroundings of a salubrious five-star hotel in South Africa but it is not proving as easy as he had hoped.

Manchester City £25 million new-boy should not need to hide in Africa. It is the continent of his birth, but the 24-year-old is on unfamiliar terrain, even on his own vast continent.

Three days into a new life with the squad Mark Hughes is pulling together, he finds himself answering accusations of having followed the pound signs to City and beating away accusations of avarice before he has even pulled on a City shirt, as he may well do in the club’s final match of their pre-season tour tomorrow.

That mildly agitates him, as far as the wide grin and the glittering eyes can do agitation. “City were always my first choice,” he said.

Adebayor’s case was not helped by the two or three days of waiting that followed the £25m deal struck by Arsenal and Manchester City to take him to Eastlands, last week.

It looked to the outside world as if he was holding out for more than the £170,000 a week salary he now commands, or a deal with Milan, though his own private uncertainties about the route he was taking and some hard negotiating with the agents who wanted to take City for millions over the deal, were behind the delays.

Now for the cold realities of helping City to a place in the elite inside a few years.

Yes, it can be done, Adebayor says. “We have to fight for the club, we have to fight for the team,” he said. “The fans believe in us, that we can bring them something. That’s what we’re going to fight for now.”