How to make friends and alienate people: Kolo Toure
(left) had the captaincy taken off him by Roberto Mancini in favour
of Carlos Tevez (right)
Manchester City defender Kolo
Toure has claimed that coach Roberto Mancini only gave the club
captaincy to Carlos Tevez to help the Argentina forward interact
better with his team-mates.
City manager Mancini took the captaincy from Toure and handed it
to Tevez in the summer, despite the new skipper clashing with him
over training methods last season.
Toure said: 'When Roberto Mancini replaced Mark Hughes as coach
last season I kept the captaincy until the end and things went
well.
'But the manager came to see me at the start of the new season
and told me he had a difficult decision to make.
'He broke the news that he would be making Carlos Tevez captain,
in order that he would become a lot more involved with the club’s
squad.
Something stinks: Tevez criticised Mancini's
training methods during the summer
'He even quoted the example of Diego Maradona at Napoli,
who worked wonders once he had been appointed their
captain.
'I told him that it was not a problem, and accepted his
decision. I am not more important than the team, and the decision
was taken for the benefit of Manchester City.'
City hope to have German defender Jerome Boateng available for
this weekend’s Barclays Premier League game against Blackburn but
striker Mario Balotelli is rated 50-50.
