Toure Expects Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Succeed

Liverpool icon Kolo Toure claims that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be a major hit at Arsenal. The former Arsenal winger made the switch to Anfield for around £ 35 million, and he has signed a long-term contract with the club.

Liverpool have been trying to get Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for a number of months now. After having finally got their man for a reasonable sum of money, manager Jurgen Klopp is expected to profit from the presence of the England international in the 2017-18 campaign. Kolo Toure, who was with the club as recently as a season ago, claims that Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has the ability to become a major success for the club.

Toure Expects Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to Succeed

His signing has already prompted a surge in demand on 1st4Footballtickets.com, with tickets for their next few home matches now close to being sold out entirely.

At just 24 years of age, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain has the best years ahead of him. As a result of being at Arsenal for almost 6 years, he has been able to learn the in and outs of playing for a top club. Toure, though, expects the England international to improve even more in the coming years. Liverpool have had a busy couple of weeks in the transfer market. The club recently announced a deal to bring in Naby Keita from RB Leipzig for around a £ 60 million, although the midfielder will not be moving to the club until next summer.

Until then, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain will be one of the expensive signings for the club. “I think he definitely strengthens the group and the team,” Toure said. “He’s English, he’s 24, he’s just coming into his peak years. He’s a very quick and exciting player. It seems as if he wasn’t happy at Arsenal, so now hopefully he can settle down, give the best years of his career at Liverpool Football Club. But I think he’s a very, very positive signing,” said Kolo after having completed the acquisition of an Arsenal asset.

Book reveals all about Toure Arsenal trial

We all know the smile Kolo Toure brings on the football pitch but do you know how he passed his trial with the Gunners? John Cross has revealed everything in his book about how Kolo Toure could not follow orders.

Kolo Toure was instructed not to tackle at all during his trials so as not to cause any unnecessary injury to Arsenal star players. Indeed, the Gunners were going to play a major match as they were challenging for the title at that time.

Book reveals all about Toure Arsenal trial

First of all, it was Thierry Henry that was targeted by Kolo Toure. He went in with his two-feet and from behind. According to Cross, this is a tackle worthy of a red card in the modern game. Wenger was shouting with all his force for Kolo Toure to stop but this felt on deaf ears.

Some of the spectators there commented that it was a bit like watching a Rugby Union match, and they were surprised StanJames weren’t offering odds on who would be cruched next!?

Then it was Denis Bergkamp who had a taste of Toure’s tackle. Again, the trialist went in with all his force and tackled the Dutchman. Wenger was furious because a young Kolo Toure was targeting two of his best players. He kept shouting to Toure to stop, but the Ivorian could not stop.

As if that was enough, Kolo Toure finally tackled the manager himself. According to the book by Cross, Arsene Wenger was in pain after the two-footed tackle by Kolo Toure and had to be carried to the medical room.

It is only at this moment that Toure took conscience of what he has done and by then thought that his opportunity of making it for the Gunners first team was gone.

However, Wenger liked Toure’s desire and determination and signed the young defender for Arsenal. He will go on and become an important player for Arsenal, especially during the Invincible season.

YAYA IMPRESSED

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Touré has said that he is impressed by the regime of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool.

The former Chelsea youth team manager has been able to get the team, which finished seventh in the league last season, to be in a position of winning the title with only five matches remaining. City will be the visitors to Anfield to take on Liverpool in a top of the table clash. Touré will be aware that City need to win the match in order to win the title. Even though they have two matches in hand, Liverpool have a four-point advantage.

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Touré has said that he is impressed by the regime of Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool.

Touré says that the regime of Rodgers has been so impressive that even his brother – Kolo Toure – speaks about it in glowing terms despite not getting regular game time at Anfield this season. Kolo moved to Liverpool in the summer on a free transfer from Manchester City.

Even though he was involved in the first half of the season, the second half has been very tough for the former Arsenal player. Kolo Toure could become the first in the Premier league to win the title with three different teams. He has done it with Arsenal and Manchester City in the past.

Yaya Touré is expected to start in the midfield for City as one of the big players.

“This year they have been playing as a team. Brendan Rodgers is a great manager and everybody has been happy with him. Even my brother Kolo has had low game time but he is very happy with him. He always keeps his team 100 per cent fit and concentrating so it’s going to be tough. Against Liverpool, everything is going to come from everywhere. [Steven] Gerrard can score penalties and free-kicks and Suarez is a danger man,” said Touré.

KOLO TAKES OUT WENGER

Kolo Toure wore the Arsenal jersey for 6 years as he was signed back in 2002 with a fee of €150,000 after a short trial and ever since making his debut with the Premier League club, he was a consistent performer as he made over 25 appearances for Arsenal in every single season.
Former Arsenal player Ray Parlour has revealed what Kolo Toure made during his trial which convinced Arsene Wenger on signing the Ivorian midfielder and according to Parlour, the strategy that Kolo Toure had was to smash some of Arsenal’s key performers with tackles and challenges.

Parlour told talkSPORT: “They rolled the ball into Thierry Henry. Kolo Toure from nowhere smashed him, right from behind, two footed tackle, a terrible tackle.

“Seriously could have been a red card in a normal game. Our best player is on the floor rolling around. Arsene Wenger screams, ‘Kolo, what are you doing? Don’t tackle, don’t tackle!’

“Next minute, ball goes into Dennis Bergkamp. Kolo Toure, exactly the same, two-foots Dennis Bergkamp. We’re thinking this is unbelievable.

“The next ball comes in and he makes a great tackle, Kolo Toure, but the ball flips up in the air and Arsene Wenger used to stand right in the middle between the midfield and the forwards and he’d try and look at all the movement.

“The ball’s gone up in the air and where did it land? Right at Arsene Wenger’s foot. He’s two-footed Arsene Wenger! Proper tackle! The lads are thinking this is unbelievable. The trialist has taken out Henry, Bergkamp and Wenger on his trial.

Kolo Toure went on making over 200 appearances for Arsenal during his stay with the Premier League club until he was offloaded to Manchester City for a price tag of €14 million which is a huge profit for the club of Arsene Wenger considering the fact that they signed him for less than €1 million.

Touré Needs To Be Steady

Kolo Touré has recently been the talking point amongst the Liverpool fans and with him scoring on both ends in the match against Fulham shows how fans can react when you are not doing well. Touré has not been in the best of forms lately and has two own goals next to his name, one with West Bromwich Albion which was an equalizer for West Brom and another was in the thriller against Fulham where he opened the scoring for Fulham in the midweek match.

The game was however won by Liverpool as Steven Gerrard scored the winner from a late penalty. Kolo Touré has been sloppy in his defending and that has hurt Liverpool as the Merseyside now have only 4 clean sheets in their last 21 games. Touré who has been a precious defender for both Arsenal and Manchester City and his transfer to Liverpool was supposed to strengthen the back four which has always been vulnerable in the last few years.

Cissokho who came to Liverpool from Valencia was drawn to the Ivorian mainly because they could speak French and he is backing the defender at this time. He said that there are times when a defender goes through such a stage in his career and it is important for the fans to stand by him during that time.

It is not always possible to keep up the good form throughout the career and so far Touré has been performing well for the team. His last few games have not been up to the mark although Liverpool did manage to win the games crucial games like the one against Arsenal and the one against Fulham where they trailed twice in the match. Cissokho has urged the Liverpool fans to be on Touré’s side now as he is going through a tough time.

He also feels that there are some more important matches coming up and they would try their level best to secure the top four spot in the Premiere League to get a chance to play in the Champions League next season after a long time.

STILL DREAMING

Kolo Toure has said that Liverpool is still in with a chance to become the English top flight champion this season.

In their last league outing against Aston Villa the other day, the Reds couldn’t secure 3 points. The match ended in a 2-2 draw.

Liverpool had gone into that game with the expectations of a win, but, their start was not less than a disaster. With about 10 minutes remaining in the first half, they had gone down by 0-2 and an upset seemed to be on the cards, but, they lifted their game in time and managed to level the proceedings.

Kolo Toure has said that Liverpool is still in with a chance to become the English top flight champion this season.

In their last league outing against Aston Villa the other day, the Reds couldn’t secure 3 points. The match ended in a 2-2 draw.

The position of Liverpool in the league points table is still very good. They are at no. 4, but, the problem is the no. of points that they have got. It’s only 43. Chelsea which is just one position ahead of them in the table has got 6 more points, while, Arsenal which is topping the table has got 8 more points. At this stage of the league, these are big differences and to win the competition from here on, the Reds need to play seriously well.

Toure who played for the full 90 minutes in the game against Villa admitted that his team didn’t perform that well, but, according to him, the other title contenders can also have days like these.

Talking to the reporters at the end of the game, the 32 years old Ivorian international said, “I don’t think we are out of it. The other sides can also have tough days. We just have to forget this and get prepared for the upcoming match.”

Liverpool’s next match is a FA Cup clash against AFC Bournemouth. That game will be played at Dean Court Ground on 25th of January.

NEW CONTRACT

Luis Suarez recently signed a new long-term contract with Liverpool, but the threat of the Uruguayan leaving the club does not appear to have diminished. This is because of Liverpool’s inability to finish in the top four for the last few seasons.

Defender Kolo Toure, who joined the club on a free transfer from Manchester City in the summer, says that their major hope of keeping Suarez rests in the ability to win a title. Liverpool are in with a shout to finish top of the table on Christmas Day due to the recent run of form.

They recently thrashed one of the favourites for the top four – Tottenham – 5-0 at their home ground. Suarez was once again on the scoresheet, and he has an impressive 19 goals in the Premier league this campaign. Toure has said that Liverpool certainly do not want to see him play for another team, what he has admitted that it will be difficult to keep the 26-year-old if Liverpool do not finish in the top four. Suarez came close to leaving for Arsenal in the summer, while Real Madrid are set to be monitoring the situation.

He is right now regarded as the best player in the world. Suarez finished the last season with 30 goals, but missed a large portion of the campaign.

“I think now he can see that all the players want to fight and want to try to win this title, definitely. We don’t, of course, want to lose him to another team. And you can see that everyone from this team wants to improve the club, to try to win a trophy. He is a great player and was amazing at Spurs, playing like he always does. He is so important. The fact that he was captain showed how much the manager respects him and I think he is a leader as well,” said Toure.

KELLY BACKS KOLO

Liverpool defender Martin Kelly has spoken to the club’s official website about defender Kolo Toure, who joined the club only in the summer on a free transfer from Manchester city. He has proven to be a great signing for the club with a string of impressive displays.

He has been one of the main reasons in getting Liverpool close to the top of the table after a great start to the season. Kelly has said that Toure has proven to be an inspirational player for Liverpool despite joining the club only in the summer.

The 31-year-old is a vastly experienced Premier league campaign having been part of the Arsenal’s last title winning team almost a decade ago. Kelly has revealed that Toure is a great personality who is willing to help the younger players all the time. Irrespective of being in the team or not, Toure is willing to help other players using his experience of the game. Toure was a £ 16 million signing for Manchester city, but he soon fell out of favour with manager Roberto Mancini. He said that the reason behind moving to Liverpool was to play regularly in order to get into the World Cup squad.

There is a lot of competition amongst defenders at Liverpool following the arrival of players like Sakho and Cissokho in the summer.

“Kolo’s a great person. He’s come in as a big character for the club and helped a lot around the dressing room. Whether he’s on your team or not in training, he’s giving advice to everyone and you like that as a defender. You like feeling as though you’re a full team. There are big players here who are helping to keep everything together, from the goalkeepers straight through to the strikers. That’s been the balance in our team so far this season. It’s been brilliant,” Kelly told Liverpoolfc.com.

KOLO SIGNS FOR LIVERPOOL

Liverpool recently brought in former Arsenal and Manchester City defender Kolo Toure on a free transfer. He signing comes at an important time for the club according to manager Brendan Rodgers. The club recently lost the services of defender Jamie Carragher, who retired from football at the end of last season.

Replacing Carragher was always going to be one of the toughest jobs in football because of the quality shown by the former England international over the last two decades. However, Rodgers is confident that Touré will be capable of doing that exactly because he has a lot of Premier league experience.

As a result of joining Liverpool, the Ivory Coast international becomes one of the few members of the squad to have won the Premier league. He lifted the title with Arsenal in 2004 and also with Manchester City only recently.

As a result of the signing, Rogers has said that he does not need to go into the transfer market in search of a new defender. Of course, the situation may change depending upon the future of Daniel Agger, who continues to be linked with a move to Barcelona. The Spanish champions have made an offer of £ 17 million for the player, who was recently made as the vice-captain for the club.

“Defensively, I think we’ll be fine. Kolo has been terrific since he came in here. He may be 32 years of age but he’s super fit and in great condition.

“He’s a player who has looked after himself all his life. His age is no barrier and he’s someone with a winning mentality. We have a number of other outstanding centre-halves in Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel,” said Rodgers.
The club will be opening the new Premier league campaign with a home match against Stoke City, who have been a bogey team in the past.

Soccer Safari

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