Emmanuel Adebayor ‘was due to join Aston Villa in 2015 but pulled out of the deal at last minute after he had a dream in which he was told not to sign

Ex-England footballer, Micah Richards has opened up on how close Aston Villa came to signing Emmanuel Adebayor ahead of the 2015-16 season.

After falling out of favour at Manchester City, Richards arrived at Villa Park in June 2015 after the club had narrowly avoided relegation the previous month.

Richards revealed that one name who was also due to join him at Villa was Adebayor, and the deal to looked to be done, only for the former Arsenal and Tottenham striker to decide against signing at the last minute for a bizarre reason.

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‘We had Adebayor there as well at the training ground,’ Richards told the Filthy Fellas YouTube channel as he reflected on moving to Villa eight years ago.

‘He was signing his shirt and everything. He came to the training ground, he took his picture in the Villa shirt.

‘Then he said he had a dream or something. This is real talk, I’m not lying! He said he had a dream or some sort of vision to say “don’t sign!”

The Midlands club finished bottom of the Premier League that year, picking up just three wins all season.

Adebayor would go on to join Crystal Palace the following January but was released by the Eagles at the end of the season.

After spells in Turkey, Paraguay, and his homeland of Togo, Adebayor announced his retirement from football in March.