Manchester City Shore Up Defence with Toure Bid
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Manager Hughes switches focus from Terry to Toure.
Having acquired enough strikers at Manchester City to field a rather unique 1-1-8 formation, manager Mark Hughes has decided to turn his attentions to the rather pressing area of bolstering defence.
With England captain John Terry out of the picture, Hughes has switched focus to Arsenal defender Kolo Toure. Talks are said to be “positive” according to City insiders as the blue half of Manchester seek to poach another star from cash-strapped Arsenal.
Last week, Emmanuel Adebayor joined City from Arsenal for £25 million, and now Ivory Coast international Toure could be set to follow his former team mate. Arsenal have always been paragons of keeping a lid on player salaries to something resembling “reasonable” as opposed to the outrageous sums paid by their rivals. Sadly, their principles are set to be undone, by the bottomless pit of resources at Manchester City.
City are also keen to get their hands on one of Everton’s prize possessions, Joleon Lescott as well as West Ham England international Matthew Upson. Both players could be prised away from their respective clubs for £15 million, taking Hughes’ summer shopping basket up to £130 million.
Yesterday, Portsmouth striker Peter Crouch signed for Tottenham to reunite with ex-manager Harry Redknapp. Tottenham are believed to have paid £10 million for the 6ft 7″ giant who will add an extra dimension to Spurs’ attack alongside Jermain Defoe and Robbie Keane.
With the arrival of Crouch at White Hart Lane, the way is cleared for Darren Bent to join Steve Bruce’s Sunderland, a deal should be finalised in the next fortnight.
