28/09/2025
Ray Parlour's funny story about Kolo Toureโs trial at Arsenal in 2002. ๐คญ๐คฃ
๐ฃ๏ธ๐๏ธ "He came into training one day, what he used to do for trialists is set up games. Usually, if it was a centre forward he would put Martin Keown on him as he knew he would try and kick him and whatever, and if he could handle that he might be a decent player.
This one day they had Kolo Toure, and Martin Keown was in his first first training session. Against them, they had Thierry Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.
I rolled the ball into Thierry Henry and Kolo Toure from nowhere has smashed him from behind. Two-footed tackle. Terrible tackle. Seriously, could have been a red card in a normal game. Our best player is rolling around.
Arsene Wenger says โKolo, what are you doing? Donโt tackle, donโt tackle.โ He just wants him to stand there. โOh, sorry, sorryโ.
The next minute ball goes into Dennis Bergkamp, theyโve swapped now. Kolo Toure does exactly the same and two-foot Dennis Bergkamp and we are thinking โThis is unbelievable. How can we win the league if our two best players has been taken out by the trialist? He must be working for someone elseโ.
Arsene Wenger says โRight no more tacklingโ.
Next ball comes in and Kolo Toure makes a great tackle, reads it, and the ball is flipped up into the air. Arsene Wenger used to stand right in the middle of the midfield and forwards and heโd try and look at the movement, so the ball has gone up in the air and Kolo Toure has his eye on the ball - heโs chasing the ball - and where did it land? Right at Arsene Wengerโs foot and heโs two-footed Arsene Wenger. Proper tackle.
All you heard was โahhhhโ. The lads are like โThis is unbelievable. Heโs took out Bergkamp, Henry, and Wenger on his trial.
Wenger has had to limp off. Heโs gone back to the medical room. Kolo Toure is like โOh noโ and nearly crying. He canโt believe it. Itโs his big day at Arsenal and heโs taken out two of our best players and the manager.
That afternoon, I remember going into the medical room to see Gary Lewin about something and Arsene Wenger was sitting there with a big ice pack on his ankle.
He said โI know he didnโt mean it, I like his desire. Weโll sign him tomorrowโ and that was it.
We signed him for ยฃ150,000 because he liked his desire. He could get that out of him and change the way he played just by his desire kicking them two players and he ended up being an amazing player for Arsenal."
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