Kolo Toure Officially Announced as a Liverpool Player

With Jamie Carragher retiring and the futures of Martin Skrtel and Sebastian Coates uncertain, one of Liverpool's top priorities in the transfer window had to be adding quality and experience in central defense. Links persist--albeit more tenuously now than earlier in the summer--for names like Kyriakos Papadopoulos and Toby Alderweireld (and Ashely Williams why Fowler why), who would ideally be brought in for both now and the future, but the signing of Kolo Toure, their first official deal announced ahead of what would become a busy pre-window period, has finally been confirmed today, hopefully the first step in a process of continuing to strengthen at the back.

The squad's return to Melwood today has been marked by an influx in skinny jeans and leaning awkwardly on things, and while we don't yet have evidence that Toure got in on the action with the former, he produced the latter in spades after the club confirmed his signing:

"This means a lot to me. Firstly, I'm joining one of the best clubs in England. When I left City it was important for me to stay in England because it's the best league - and to join Liverpool is massive for me. I chose Liverpool because of the history and because of the spirit of the team and the people here."

It's been roundly agreed that Toure is a good signing for depth and to provide experience in a back line that struggled at times last season, but not a deal that's going to solve anything for the future. That's what the signing of players like Papadopoulos and Alderweireld would be for, and Liverpool cannot see this deal as any sort of mission accomplished when it comes to their transfer business defensively.

But as with the other three Liverpool have announced this summer, it's finally an official welcome to Kolo Toure

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