Chelsea star recalls life at Manchester City with Shamrock Rovers and Ireland midfielder Jack Byrne
Tosin Adarabioyo was at the Manchester City academy with Jack Byrne, before moving onto Fulham and then Chelsea
Chelsea defender Tosin Adarabioyo has described Shamrock Rovers midfielder Jack Byrne as “my number six” - as he reflected on the time they spent together at Manchester City.
The pair will meet for the first time since Byrne left the Premier League giants in 2017 for Wigan, when Adarabioyo lines out for the Blues against Rovers on Thursday night in the Europa Conference League.
Adarabioyo spent three more years at City before moving to Fulham in 2020, and then onto neighbours Chelsea last July.
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Neither player featured in the Premier League for the Etihad outfit, although Adarabioyo played eight times for Pep Guardiola’s men in cup competitions.
Recalling their time together, the Chelsea star said: “Jack was an absolute character, an amazing guy, a very lovely character and an amazing guy. I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
Despite being a year younger than Byrne, the pair lined up together in the underage sides.
“I was playing up and we did become teammates from the age of 15. He was my number six. We had a good partnership,” said Adarabioyo.
“ He was the guy I used to give balls to and he would be spraying diags. I have great memories of Jack.”
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Byrne isn’t the only former teammate of Adarabioyo to move to the League of Ireland. St Patrick’s Athletic midfielder Romal Palmer and Derry City’s Will Patching also earned their stripes in the City academy.
“It’s amazing, you separate at a certain age and at different times in your career and you just never know when you might see each other again,” said Adarabioyo.
“When me and Jack saw the draw we knew it would be a great time to catch up.”
The defender added that he would spend much of the build-up to the game studying Rovers striker Johnny Kenny’s European performances so far.
Kenny - on-loan from Celtic - has netted seven times in Europe this season, including five goals in the league phase of the Europa Conference League, making him joint-top scorer so far.
“That’s very impressive,” said Adarabioyo. “They are things we will be looking at today and tonight as we prepare for the game.”
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