Toure ready for return of Tevez to first team
Manchester City defender Kolo Toure insists he is eagerly anticipating the return of Carlos Tevez to the first-team fold.
Tevez hasn’t played a competitive game for the Citizens since an infamous public spat with manager Roberto Mancini during the 2-0 defeat to Bayern Munich back in September.
However, both Tevez and Mancini recently made peace with each other and reports now suggest the Argentina international will be ready to face Chelsea on Wednesday night.
And Ivory Coast international Toure is delighted about the prospect of playing with the former Manchester United striker again, saying: "Carlos is a great player and I can't wait to see him play in this team.
"He's a fighter, he is a strong character and his quality is fantastic. For me, I can't wait."
City crashed out of the Europa League on Thursday night despite a spirited fightback against Portuguese outfit Sporting Lisbon.
The last 16 exit means the club’s sole focus for silverware remains the Premier League this season, and Toure says the players are to blame for not progressing to the quarter-finals of the competition.
"In the first half it wasn't Man City," he added.
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"We didn't run, it was as simple as that, and when you don't run you can't win anything.
"The second half was much better and we need to play like that every game, for the whole game.
"We don't want to lose the Premier League. It's going to be fantastic. This team will fight with all our power and give all we have."
Nick Moore is a freelance journalist based on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. He wrote his first FourFourTwo feature in 2001 about Gerard Houllier's cup-treble-winning Liverpool side, and has continued to ink his witty words for the mag ever since. Nick has produced FFT's 'Ask A Silly Question' interview for 16 years, once getting Peter Crouch to confess that he dreams about being a dwarf.