BRENDAN RODGERS is set to offer Kolo Toure a coaching role to keep him at Celtic beyond the summer.
The Parkhead manager is eager to continue to work with the Ivory Coast international after he was brought in at the start of the season to bring experience to the squad.
Toure, who penned a one-year deal with the Ladbrokes Premiership champions, has won an African Cup of Nations, three FA Cups and two Premier League titles – including as part of Arsenal’s Invincibles side – to name but a few.
He has only featured 13 times since coming up to Glasgow but Rodgers has seen more than enough of his contribution elsewhere to want to keep him at the club.
“Yeah, absolutely,” said the Celtic manager. “It’s something we’ll talk about at some stage between now and the end of the season. There’s no doubt about that.
“I brought him for a number of reasons and one of them of course was playing. I thought to bring him in to help us get through to the Champions League. That mentality, and the experience of what it takes to get there was going to be important.
“There’s also other reasons why I brought him here like that influence in the changing room. And that doesn’t have to end after this season.
“He’s a good guy and I like to help good people. I want to work with him and it’s something him and I will talk about between now and the end of the season.”
Toure’s stature in the game has offered him instant respect in the Celtic camp according to his manager, a fact that has been noticed by the likes of Scott Brown in and around Lennoxtown.
It is a leadership quality that the Northern Irishman was well aware of when their paths crossed previously at Liverpool.
"When I took Kolo to Liverpool he helped with that seniority over the players. It was the same idea coming here. He knew he was probably getting towards the end of his career as a player,” he said.
“He can still play of course and it’s more difficult for him if he’s out the team for a while.
“When he was at Liverpool I put him on his journey of coaching. We started him on his badges and he’s just completed his B Licence. He sees himself going down that route. For him, he’s been invaluable.
“Browny will probably tell you the help he’s been. When he came in Browny was the leader and maybe not so many others around him. But Kolo came in and straight away he’s a man with big experiences who is a good communicator. He’s good with the young players, he has empathy for them and wants to help them. He always helps the manager.
“Even though he hasn’t played so much his influence in the changing room is huge because of what he passes on to Dembele and these guys just starting out on their careers, especially the foreign boys.
“The Dembeles of this world now look at a guy at 35 who has been a big player and won big titles, played at World Cups. He’s a real major influence for them.
“His role hasn’t diminished even if he’s not playing as much. He’s still very important to us.”
A lack of match time may be seen as a stumbling block for many players of Toure’s age and stature as they seek to prolong their game time, but Rodgers is confident the Ivorian’s instant love for Celtic will make him want to stick around.
“He certainly loves it,” he said. “His family have all moved up and they’ve all settled in well. You don’t make that commitment if you don’t think it’s going to be for longer than what his contract was.
“He knows he’s at a big club in Celtic. It’s only when you come into it you realise just how big it is.
“Of course, he’ll enjoy like the rest of us the pressure and expectancy around Celtic to win. When you’ve worked at a big level that’s what you want and he has that at Celtic.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel