Kolo Toure claims Carlos Tevez only handed captain's armband to help him make friends

08 September 2010 01:11
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.[LNB]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.[LNB]Toure said: 'When Roberto Mancini replaced Mark Hughes as coach last season I kept the captaincy until the end and things went well.[LNB] 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)[LNB]'But the manager came to see me at the start of the new season and told me he had a difficult decision to make.[LNB]'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.[LNB] Something stinks: Tevez criticised Mancini's training methods during the summer[LNB]'He even quoted the example of Diego Maradona at Napoli, who worked wonders once he had been appointed their captain.[LNB]'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.'[LNB]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. [LNB] Ex-City keeper Dibble warns Given he faces a battle regaining No 1 spot from HartCapello's joy at new maturity in his England keeper HartMANCHESTER CITY FC

Source: Daily_Mail