31 Mar 2011 19:23:00
Kolo Toure, Manchester City (Getty Images)
Related Links
Teams
Players
EXCLUSIVE
By Jamie Dunn
Kolo Toure believes Manchester City’s “new vision” of football can lead them into the Champions League as they target a Premier League top-four finish this season.
Roberto Mancini’s side are currently in the final qualifying place for Europe’s elite competition, four points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur, who beat them to fourth last season.
The defender, who is currently suspended after testing positive for a specified substance, believes City are progressing all the time.
“I’m feeling really happy at City now, we have some new players and a new vision of football,” he told Goal.com at the Soccerex European Forum in Manchester. “We want to win things and at the moment we’re doing well and we hope to finish in the top four and see if we can qualify for the Champions League.”
“We are improving every season, last season we finished fifth and if this season we can finish in the top four that will be great and it will show we’re progressing and I think that is the most important.
“To win the Premier League is very difficult because there are some top teams but when you have good players, you all want to win and that can happen definitely.”
City have been dogged by rumours of disharmony at the club this season, but the former Arsenal man insists team spirit is high and there have been no extraordinary rifts this term.
He said: “We all get on because we are all there to play football and we have some young players some more experienced players and I think the experienced players just try to help the young players.”
Toure also believes Mario Balotelli, who has had a controversial start to his career in England, is undergoing a period of adjustment in the Premier League and will be a different player next season.
“I think Balotelli is a young player and he needs to adapt to the Premier League and the English culture and to the English spirit,” he said. “I think from next season you will see better coming from him.”
Balotelli exclusively told Goal.com he is enjoying life in Manchester and wants to repay the faith shown to him by Mancini and the Eastlands staff.
