Source: Telegraph
Arsenal lost too many leaders and I was right to go to Manchester City says Kolo Toure
The Ivorian, the last remaining member of their 2003/04 'invincibles' squad, believes the failure to replace a host of star players has made the club a less attractive proposition than Mark Hughes' City.
The 28-year-old said: "I came to Man City because when you look at Arsenal you see all the great players have left the club and are now in the past. Look at what has happened there. Thierry Henry has gone, Patrick Vieira has gone, Ray Parlour has gone.
"These were the players that brought success to Arsenal and I believed it was right at this stage of my career to also move on.
"We lost too many leaders at Arsenal. When we were winning the league title the spirit was fantastic, we were like a band of brothers."
Toure also defended City's spending policy, which has seen them criticised in some quarters for distorting the market.
"The best teams are at the top only because they have the best players and to get those players you have to spend a lot of money," he said. "You can't be successful in football without money. This is the football business. City have a project to build a big team and so it is natural it is going to cost money."
Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger says he has been impressed with the development of 17-year-old midfielder Jack Wilshere in the pre-season, saying he is becoming more powerful in bursting past and destabilizing defenders.
But the Frenchman also said his biggest challenge in managing the teenager is getting him to accept that for the time being he will have to accept not being a first-choice player.
"At that age unfortunately, patience is not your first quality," Wenger said. "But he's at a big club and he has a chance to compete already. We give him the chance to compete at the top level and we have to manage that well the desire to play, the opportunity to play and patience. The potential is there.
"He has matured and you see compared to one year ago he has more power to take people on. He's now gained a fraction of power that makes him much more dangerous. Once people start to pass people in the final 20 yards you can always say there's something special there."
