The Aviva Stadium will be rocking to a chorus of ‘Kolo. Kolo, Kolo. Kolo, Kolo. Kolo, Kolo Toure’ next Saturday.
As if it wasn’t thrilling enough to see Barcelona in action, Irish supporters will likely get the chance to witness Kolo Toure’s first performance in the green and white of Celtic.
The defender’s transfer to the Scottish champions is all but complete and, in all likelihood, will be a done deal by the end of this weekend.
Hoops boss Brendan Rodgers admitted that there may not be enough time for Toure, who he brought to Liverpool in 2013, to feature in Celtic’s Champions League third qualifying round clash with Astana midweek but that he should make an appearance in next weekend’s friendly with the Catalan giants.
Barcelona meet Celtic in the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night and Rodgers believes that the Ivorian will be lining out in his back four for the Dublin meeting.
“It should be complete by tomorrow,” Rodgers said after a pre-season clash with Leicester this evening.
“I brought him into Liverpool to add that bit of experience and help to the centre-halves there at the time and I think you’ve seen from his impact there and in particular last season, he was a very important player for Jurgen (Klopp) towards the end of the season and played in the Europa League final.
WATCH: The stout-hearted tackle that proves that Kolo Toure did not deserve to be on the losing side https://t.co/DQCriFWyA2
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 18, 2016
“He was outstanding for me in the big games when I was there.
“He looks after himself, he is a wonderful professional with big experience and I just think with a lot of young players in our squad he can really help them and be of assistance to Scott Brown, who is a wonderful leader.
“It will be nice for Scott to have someone behind him who has that real big-game experience and he could do very well for us.
“I would think that Wednesday would be too soon.
“I would be more looking towards the weekend and some game time against Barcelona to assess where he is at, before the following week. All being well, he will get a good week’s training.”
