Brendan Rodgers has hailed the ‘winning mentality’ of Kolo Toure, in what is the clearest indication yet the Ivorian defender will stay at Liverpool for the new season, reports Liverpoolfc.com.
Toure has previously been linked with a move to Turkish club Beskitas, and his future has been the subject of more speculation following the arrival of £20million defender Dejan Lovren this week.
But Rodgers insists the club needs players such as Toure, who have experience of winning honours at the highest level.
The boss commented: “Kolo has been an incredible player. We brought him in because he is a winner, an authentic winner.
“He’s someone who doesn’t play every single week but when he does play, he plays very well. Every day of his life in training, he gives his all.
“Players like Kolo and Steven [Gerrard], the older statesmen of the team, have been absolutely first class. We’re hungry and ambitious; we went close last year.
“That inspires us and gives us great motivation to go on this year. That is the beauty of this group of players – it’s a very hungry group because that’s what we’re trying to bring in.”
Toure meanwhile is set to come up against brother Yaya when the Reds meet Manchester City for a pre season friendly in New York this evening.
And the 33-year-old insists he can’t wait to do battle with his sibling.
“It’s going to be fun because he’s a good player,” he said. “I’ve played with him and against him. It’s going to be really good; I will try to challenge him and win the game. That’s what I’m going to do.
“The pre-season is great and we’ve been working really hard. We are preparing for the season as we want to do as well as we can.
“Every competition is going to be very important for us, so we will give our all in every game and see what we can achieve.”
