By Myles Palmer
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A 15-YEAR OLD Arsenal fan, Bilal Zaidi, has asked if I can do something on Kolo Toure “because he deserves it.”
I don’t do requests, but here are a few words.
For me the two biggest football stories of 2003-04 are David Beckham’s phenomenal success at Real Madrid and Kolo Toure’s arrival as powerhouse centreback at Arsenal.
About four years ago, Arsene attended one of those meetings of top European coaches that UEFA organise.
Capello, Lippi, Del Bosque, Sven was at Lazio at the time, I think.
And Arsene came back and said, “Everybody’s looking for centre halves.But there are none to buy.”
I THINK KOLO TOURE gives Arsenal power and humility.
He is a grizzly strong gladiator with a heart of gold.
He is a competitor who could take on Daley Thompson.
A running-jumping marvel who could be a decathlete. He could jump, throw, pole-vault, sprint, run 1500 metres, you name it.
Since Arsene likes to create a moral universe as well as a sporting universe, he sells the gamblers and the boozers and sends the unpunctual out on loan, so that he can work with serious footballers who want to improve.
So Arsene loves a good African boy who trains hard and goes home and prays to Allah.
Kolo, like all of us, defines himself by the things he doesn’t do.
Kolo will not drive up over Little Hey golf club and spend the whole day boozing in the 19th hole without ever making the first tee.
He won’t then get into a Land Rover and drive to Muswell Hill, crash into a parked car, jump out and leg it to avoid a breathalyser test.
He won’t go into a pub toilet in Hoddesdon and buy amphetamines.
He won’t hoover up line after line of Bolivian marching powder in flash discotheques.
He won’t sit at home scoffing hamburgers and lager and watching darts on BBC2.
He won’t go away to play for his country and knock his hotel room door off its hinges at 4 a.m. and not be able to remember doing that.
KOLO TOURE is a good guy who is enjoying life, and we are enjoying him.
He is a still-rough diamond who loves to play, and apart from a rash tackle or two, he is fantastic.
Inspirational, ebullient, fast, agile, able to leap tall buildings with a single bound.
Kolo is a manager’s dream because he wants to learn, wants to win, wants to share his success, wants to play anywhere the manager asks him to play.
His approach to life and football fits in with Arsene’s approach to life and football because Arsene wants his players to stay sober and run faster and fulfill their potential and win trophies and have longer careers.
He helps them to become healthier, happier, more fulfilled, and financially secure for life.
I would guess that Kolo, by his example, has helped the French boys to be more humble.
His enthusiam is infectious and his humility is sincere.
So this is a season Kolo will always remember. A season he will always, always, always remember.
Friendlies at Celtic and Rangers and shutting out van Nistelrooy in a 1-1 in Cardiff and a 3-0 home defeat to Inter on the night Sol’s father died.
But making two recovery tackles on Martins to prevent 5-0.
So he crashed 3-0 on Matchday 1 and recovered to play a big part in Arsenal’s first win in Spain on Matchday 7.
KOLO is one of nine kids.
He has six brothers and two sisters and he is a decent man among many decent men in the Arsenal squad and he thanks his lucky stars that he is gainfully employed by England’s best club.
He says he wants to play well for the fans, and especially for the handicapped supporters whose wheelchairs are next to the touchline.
Kolo says, “I love to give everything I have for people who come to see us – the people who have been working hard all week and pay their money to watch us. You see the sick people watching from the side. You have to do it for them. That is what is important.”
Kolo has already faced Vieiri and Michael Owen ane Alan Shearer – and Ronaldo could be a few weeks down the road.
He can’t wait. And neither can you.
TO ANY 15-YEAR OLD boy I would say : Enjoy football, but enjoy other sports as well. Your next eight years will pass quickly.
In 2012 you will be as old as Kolo is now – he will be 23 on Friday, March 19th.
It’s natural to have heroes. But worshipping footballers can be unhealthy.
Always remember that professional footballers are men, like you will be.
These guys, like Kolo and Thierry, do not come from another planet.
They are just human beings who are very good at playing football.
If you can remember that, you won’t let the world’s greatest game bend you out of shape too often.
AS I SAY, I’m breaking a rule here. I don’t do requests.
That’s what I should have told Allen Wright, the Arts Editor of The Scotsman.
He phones one day and says, “The editor would like a piece about Brenda Lee.”
A tiny American singer who was doing on a UK tour that included the Edinburgh Playhouse.
The editor probably heard Sweet Nothings when he was 12 and never got over it. Brenda’s electrifying voice stayed with him.
I was thinking : Tell the editor that Myles doesn’t do requests !
But sometimes you have to play the game. And I’ve interviewed scores of American musicians. One more would not hurt.
So I call Brenda in Bournemouth, where she is doing a soundcheck, and knock out 800 words.
She says, “Jerry Lee Lewis was wonderful. He was a wild man. He had so much excitement and so much energy, and a wonderful voice too.
“I worked with Elvis, we did a show together at the Grand Ole Opry in 1957. Neither he nor I had ever performed there before. It went down great, they enjoyed it, although they didn’t quite know what to think, because we were both rockabilly.”
As you know, the Grand Ole Opry is a radio show in Nashville that began in 1928.
16th March 2004.