Liverpool FC

My move to Anfield was a present from God and I hope Liverpool are my 'new Arsenal' (plus how to handle Mario and City hell with Mancini) - Kolo Toure talks to Martin Keown

By MARTIN KEOWN

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Ten years ago they were team-mates as Arsenal’s Invincibles went a season unbeaten. Martin Keown and Kolo Toure are still good friends.
Here, they talk Arsenal, Manchester City, Kolo’s drugs ban and his excitement at joining Liverpool.

KEOWN: Kolo, it’s 10 years since our Invincibles team. Can you believe it?

TOURE: It’s unbelievable. It was fantastic. I was lucky to have you and Sol Campbell. You looked after me like I was your younger brother, you helped me take your place in the team. And when I played with you, I wanted to do everything to make you happy.

KEOWN: You had the ingredients and the right spirit, you just needed to know where to be on the pitch. I remember one game against Manchester City when you were running around all over the place! But we have to mention what happened with the boss when you first arrived . . .

TOURE: Haha, yes. We were doing a one-v-one drill in training and I was so hungry to make an impression. I slid into a tackle near the side of the pitch and Arsene Wenger was just on the touchline. As I slid in, I tackled him too and he ended up on the floor.

KEOWN: We were all laughing, but he got up and said: ‘I will sign this player.’

TOURE: The move was so big for me. Four weeks before, I was watching you all on TV in the Ivory Coast and then I was training with you. Those players had an incredible mentality. I’d never seen that before and I haven’t since. Training was hard and very competitive. I found it harder than the games. The team was so good.

KEOWN: I remember you used to pray in the boot room a lot . . .

TOURE: Yes, I prayed on the floor and one day you opened the door, tripped over me and fell over. It was so funny.

KEOWN: How upset were you that your brother didn’t get taken on? He played in a friendly for us but he had an injury if I remember.

TOURE: I was disappointed as I knew how good Yaya was. He was 20 and technically brilliant but not quite strong enough yet.

KEOWN: But you played with him in the end at Manchester City.

TOURE: It was a dream come true. It made me different on the pitch, though. Every time he lost the ball, I tried extra hard to win it back. It’s a natural reaction but I tried to hide it. And when two or three were demanding the ball off me, I always gave it to Yaya. I’d done the same to Patrick Vieira but then I switched to Yaya and Patrick was not happy!

KEOWN: You won so much at Manchester City. What went wrong?

TOURE: It was difficult. The fans were great to me and I have great friends there, including the chairman. I didn’t have a problem with Roberto Mancini but it was very difficult to work with him.

KEOWN: Did the players fall out of love with him? It seemed like he couldn’t hide his emotions.

TOURE: That’s how Italians often are. Paolo Di Canio is the same. It doesn’t make them bad guys. But I worked really hard I tried everything but it didn’t work.

KEOWN: Did his fights with other players affect you? We saw him with Mario Balotelli, in particular.

TOURE: I came from Arsenal, where everything was so straightforward. The manager was so calm. Mark Hughes was the same, he was great. But Mancini was different. Balotelli was not a problem for me. You just had to know how to handle him and I knew how to get along with him. He kept asking me, ‘Why aren’t you playing, Kolo?’ I said, ‘Ask your father, Mancini’.

KEOWN: Were there still happy moments?

TOURE: I loved the first two years, I won the Cup and the league. And I wouldn’t have minded being on the bench if I thought the players in front of me were better. But I didn’t. He brought in Stefan Savic and Matija Nastasic and I was left behind. It was so difficult.

When Vincent Kompany was injured, Mancini played me. I was supposed to leave in the transfer window but they said they needed me. I played five very important games, kept four clean sheets, including against Chelsea, but he dropped me when Kompany was fit again.

KEOWN: I suppose the lowest point was your six-month ban for taking the diet pills. You’ve always had issues with weight.

TOURE: I came back to Arsenal after my first season 8kg heavier than I had been. Everyone was laughing at me. I had been on holiday in Ivory Coast having just signed a new contract so I was enjoying myself and eating a lot of chicken. I became worried about my weight and it never left me.

KEOWN: You were like a bag of bones when you arrived, then all of a sudden you went from being a middleweight to a heavyweight. When Wenger first saw you, he thought you weren’t big enough to play centre half. But 18 months later you were so much stronger.

TOURE: But my weight was how I ended up banned. My wife was taking the water tablets to lose weight and I needed to do the same. My wife got them from a friend so I asked her if I was allowed to take them. The friend called the clinic and the receptionist said fine. But she wasn’t really qualified. So I took the pills for a few months and my wife told me to take them to the doctor at Manchester City to make sure they were OK.

I put the bag on the table and he just took a quick look inside and said OK (at the official inquiry, the doctor denied this version of events). I thought ‘great’ but my wife was amazed the doctor didn’t keep the pills. At City we did a urine test every morning so I assumed they were checking all the time. But I was wrong. I was given a six-month ban. I didn’t want to argue because it was my responsibility. It was difficult but I trained every day. I thought the club were going to support me. It was part of life and things have ended up well. Missing six months reminded me how much I love this game.

KEOWN: You’re at another huge club. What can you achieve here?

TOURE: I’m very lucky to be at Liverpool. It’s great to have the chance again to show what I’m capable of. I’m hoping it can be my second Arsenal: red colour, great style of football, great mentality. It’s a great time to come here. I’ve spoken to Jamie Carragher for advice. It’s impossible for me to replace him because he’d been here for so many years so I have to find my own way.

KEOWN: You could be here for a long time as you’re still mobile.

TOURE: I’d like to be here for a few years. I’ve been working really hard on my mobility because I’ve lost it a bit in the last four years. We didn’t work on it. Wenger used to know what I was capable of doing but I lost that a bit. But I’m back and have had a great pre-season.

KEOWN: And what’s Brendan Rodgers like?

TOURE: He talks at the right time. He’s hard when he needs to be hard, soft when he needs to be soft. There’s a big focus on passing and we’ve done a lot of high-intensity runs. He’s made me feel great and he calls me his ‘Invincible’.

KEOWN: Only five other players have won the title with two teams. It’s a bit ambitious to say you can make it three, right?

TOURE: No, we can win the league in the next few years. The mentality is right, there are some good players and this club have such a great history. This team are far better than City were when I arrived there. And we won the league in three years. Here, everyone is focused, even the young players. Everyone arrives on time.

KEOWN: You’d think that would be a given but at a lot of other clubs, players just wander in when they want. Who have you been up against in training? I remember kicking lumps out of Nicolas Anelka and Thierry Henry . . .

TOURE: I haven’t seen much yet of Luis Suarez but I had one session with him and I was all over him! Coutinho is the best player here, I think. I call him ‘my player’. He’s going to be massive this year.

KEOWN: Any player who joins this club should get out the history books and DVDs. It will feel great when you walk out at Anfield.

TOURE: I can’t wait to hear You’ll Never Walk Alone.

KEOWN: You just need to keep calm. The emotion excites you but it’s about keeping it in a box and then bringing it out for a big tackle. I always see you making ‘calm down’ gestures to yourself. You now have to spread that calmness throughout the backline.

TOURE: That’s my role now. And then maybe one day I can be an assistant manager to you, somewhere! But this move is a present from God. This is perfect.