Bazoumana Toure's pace and technical ability will see him record plenty of goals and assists for Newcastle United this season, despite his slow start to life on Tyneside. That is the verdict of former Arsenal defender and Toure's compatriot Emmanuel Eboue, who has described the 20-year-old as a 'younger brother' to him.
Slow start since £43m move
Toure joined Newcastle in a £43million deal from German side Hoffenheim in the summer but is yet to make a Premier League start this season. The Ivory Coast international scored on his only start of the season - a 3-2 win over West Brom in the Carabao Cup - and he also scored from the bench in last month's 4-1 defeat to Leeds United at Elland Road.
He has been restricted to just four appearances so far this term with Matthias Jaissle urging for patience when it comes to the development of Toure and fellow new signing Aladji Bamba.
Eboue's backing
And Eboue feels Newcastle will eventually be rewarded for that patience and is happy to see more Ivorian players gracing the Premier League.
"Bazoumana is like my younger brother. He's my boy," Eboue told Live Football Tickets. "I've known him since he was very young and I know the people from the academy where he came from.
"I'm very proud of him. He is very quick and technically very good. He can score goals and he can make assists. I'm also very happy that we are seeing more Ivorian players playing in England now. Ivory Coast has some very good young players and I'm proud to see them playing in the biggest leagues."
Record suggests promise
Toure's record prior to making the move to Tyneside would suggest Eboue's prediction will come to fruition, given he bagged five goals and 12 assists in the Bundesliga last term to help Hoffenheim qualify for Europe. He also bagged nine goals and three assists the season before that while playing for Swedish side Hammarby in the Allsvenskan and his next challenge is to usurp the in form Harvey Barnes from Newcastle's left-wing spot.
Speaking about Toure last month, Jaissle said: "Bazou, it's really clear, he's a young lad, came as a new signing, and he's doing a great job. You see the steps now in training; he's really committed.
"It's sometimes in football that if you have other players performing as well on a really high level, like Harvey Barnes at the moment, then you're getting a little bit less playing time. It's the same with AB for instance. We're not pushing, especially not externally, pushing them to get more minutes. It's normal progress and we're supporting them to getting there."
Toure just enjoyed a successful international break where he featured three times for Ivory Coast, scoring in their win over Somalia as they made a perfect start to their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying group.
