Manchester City were locked in talks yesterday with Arsenal for defender Kolo Toure. The Daily Mail says having signed Emmanuel Adebayor from Arsenal for £25m last week, City are hopeful negotiations will go just as smoothly for Toure.

The Ivory Coast defender, 28, has spent seven years at Arsenal and is the club's longest-serving player but he was involved in a fall-out with teammate William Gallas last season and demanded a transfer in January.

City's need to strengthen their defence was underlined in Pretoria on Saturday when new midfielder Gareth Barry finished the Vodacom Challenge final defeat by Kaizer Chiefs at centre-back after Richard Dunne, Nedum Onuoha and Javan Vidal were all injured.