Gazza M peak paddy and Gilbert o'sullivan had alot to do with protecting kolo in that invincible season, as well as being babysat by 2 of the best to ever do it (cashley and sol). he certainly wasn't dead weight, but he wouldn't be able to perform the way he did without being ensconced in such excellence

Feels a bit disingenius to say it like that when Gilberto and Vieia both missed chunks of that season. Even Cole missed a bunch of games following OT. Think Lehmann, Toure and Thierry were the only players to play almost every game that season in the PL.

      Kolo was great and after Sol went he was much better than Gallas, who went hunting goals constantly and left Kolo to defend on his own.

      Big Willie paddy only missed around 2 months early in the season. cole a sinilar amount due to suspension. parlour and edu stepped in to provide a similar level of shielding on the occasions anyone was out. kolo was very good, but the conditions couldn't have been better for him

        Bringing in Edu and Parlour to explain why circumstances were ideal for Kolo is a bit strange. You could argue Kolo, Sol and Cole made corcumstances ideal for Edu and Parlour to come in and perform at a level that kept us unbeaten.

        Also Paddy missing 2 months of a 9 month season is almost a quarter of the season. Gilberto missed a similar number of games. In any case the argument that Toure (whilst starting almost every game) was one of the weaker player in the team being carried by others rather than being a key player whose involvement contributed to our season is wild to me. But each to their own I guess. I feel he more than held his own alongside the generally accepted World Class players we had that season.

          Big Willie its just like saying Rice, Partey and Merino and Co are shielding / surrounding Saliba and Gabriel. Of course they are. And of course they're excellent players too, aren't they? But Saliba and Gabriel are world class in their own right. I daresay outside of the insane number of corner goals, Gabriel and Toure would compare quite similarly as players. Will's point which I clearly see is that you don't play on a team like the invincibles as mere a "decent" player. All those players were some of the very best of their generation. In every single position. I find it interesting that Kolo is seemingly so underrated.

              flobaba gabriel has surpassed kolo already for me, as an individual player. can't teach height, and his leadership is a different level. and maybe I still have some latent anger at kolo for bungling babel over in the CL quarters at anfield. it's entirely possible

                  This is Kolo Touré we're discussing, who was an actual mainstay of an unbeaten Premier League defence. Think he might have been a decent player myself.

                  Big Willie usimg the team's defensive decline after 2006 as proof of these faults does him a huge disservice. A similar argument could be made that Sol's flaws were exposed after he left us, if we ignored the fact he was playing for Portsmoth and their weak defence.

                  Don't have a particular opinion about how good Kolo was for the invincibles, but it's quite relevant that Campbell left Arsenal on the decline. Kolo Toure was 25 (?) in 2006 and should've had his best years still ahead of him. Yet, I don't think we saw any world class seasons from him after that.

                    9 days later

                    Wouldn’t be the most exciting but he is talented. Another physical monster in the air

                    DCL? Is it 2019? I rather sign Chris Wood.

                    I would actually try and sign Mbeumbo from Brentford as a priority. That’s our wing sorted at least. He can be our Mane.

                    We need a marquee signing in attack. We’ve not had one under Arteta

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