Football: Wenger was 'Mr Arsenal' but was treated poorly by the club's fans - Kolo Toure

Kolo Toure believes Arsene Wenger should be referred to as 'Mr Arsenal', but was treated poorly by the club's fans. Toure: "I’m sometimes disappointed with the way [Arsene] Wenger left the club. In my opinion when I was there…playing for Arsenal was playing for Wenger. This guy loves Arsenal. This guy put his body on the line for the club. When I was there he could have gone anywhere, Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern, but he stayed. He gave his life to Arsenal. He gave his football career to Arsenal. Of course at one point people wanted a change, but there’s always a way. You have to be class. He gave everything. Look at Alex Ferguson, he gave everything to [Manchester] United. But the way Fergie left was great. I can't see that with Arsenal. You see people saying Arsene Wenger, he's been there for too long. The guy gave his whole career and he loved this club. The passion and trust he gave me when he spoke to me…. I wanted to give my best for the club. You could see that with the unbeatable team. We didn't want to just play for the club, we wanted to play for Arsene Wenger. He was a great human being. So respectful. He wanted to give freedom to the players. He's not the guy who's going to tell his players what to do on the pitch. He relied on your creativity. We had so many top players. So many experienced players. Coming from Inter, coming from Juve, coming from Milan. These guys had experience. This generation left, and there were no players who could keep the legacy to the young players who came in. And it was completely different when the youngsters came. For the new generation of players now, you have to tell them what to do. It's not like before where you had to be creative. Now for the young players you have to tell them, you have to help them. That's what I think was a bit difficult for Mr Wenger. He had young academy players used to being told what to do. That was difficult in comparison to us. We were top players from top clubs. We lots of experience who had creativity. We knew what we needed to do on the pitch. The manager was always guiding us, giving us advice. Telling us not to worry, to keep putting the pressure on. We were able to make tactical changes in the game who could help us win. I’m glad Arteta is now [speaking to Wenger]. That shows the respect of the man, for Mr Arsenal. That’s how we should speak of him, Mr Arsenal. This guy changed the club completely and we have to really respect that."