Quote me on this:
“Letting go of Adebayor was required for the health of the team, but if Arsene sells Kolo Toure, it will be a mistake that he will live to regret”
And I don’t mean that in a threaty way, I mean it in a results driven football industry way.
In this day and age, where loyalty, hard work and a sincere love for a club are rare qualities, we have all of that packaged into one player, one rock of a defender, one player who has been dubbed Mr Arsenal, and that player is Kolo Toure. We’re entering a new season and we need our players. In fact, it was Arsene would said his priority was to keep the existing group of players together.
After the season finished, I expected the following to happen:
- Buy a top quality defensive midfielder with experience
- Buy a top quality defender with experience
- Sell Senderos to Milan
Instead, the following has, and may happen:
- Sell Adebayor
- Sell Kolo Toure
- Buy a young defender
- End up deploying Senderos in midfield
Now, if you ask me, it’s getting a little bit weird. Our aim this summer was to buy two experienced, strong and powerful players, one to partner Cesc and one to join the defensive group. I was certain that Silvestre and Senderos wouldn’t be here at the start of the season. It did start well with the purchase of Vermaelen, but then got worse when we lost out to Melo, Cana and Yaya (never really a no-go). We then went on to sell Adebayor and then Arsene said he wasn’t planning on buying a replacement. It also looks like we won’t be signing a defensive midfielder with outcast Philippe Senderos deployed in an unfamilar defensive role, and now, the icing on the cake… Kolo Toure is off.
The fee is apparently £16m, which is quite low considering his OPTA stats and his experience in the game – the fee is agreed and the player is having a medical.
Kolo Toure is reportedly flying back to England from Arsenal’s Austria training base to finalise his transfer to Manchester City. Sky Sports News report that Toure is returning to undergo a medical at Eastlands after the two clubs agreed a fee of £16m. It’s thought that Toure may be unveiled as a City player by Friday. If so, Toure will be the second Arsenal player in as many weeks to leave for Eastlands after the £25m transfer of Emmanuel Adebayor.
Personally, I am a little shocked, but it’s another one of those “put your Faith in Arsene” ones, and it’s some serious faith. When Arsene spoke about bringing experience in and keeping the squad together, the subsequent sales of Toure and Adebayor are very much in constrast to this.
What are your views? Is this one sale too much? Is this one move too many? Has Arsene made a mistake?
