Toure won’t play until agent says sorry: Pep
YAYA Toure will not play again for Manchester City until the player’s camp apologises for comments made by his agent, manager Pep Guardiola vowed on Tuesday.
Dimitri Seluk accused the City manager of “humiliating” Toure, 33, by leaving him out of the club’s Champions League squad at the start of this month.
The Ivorian midfielder, who announced his retirement from international duty on Tuesday, has not figured in a single City match-day squad since then.
“The day after that, his agent spoke and in that moment, Yaya is out,” Guardiola told a press conference.
“Unless Mr Dimitri Seluk comes back to the press or to his friends in the media – because he hasn’t the courage to call me, he goes to the media – and apologises to Manchester City first of all, then his teammates and afterwards the trainer.
“When that happens, Yaya will be part of the group and he will have the chance to play.”
Toure has recovered from a migraine that made him unava i lable for Sat u rday ’s 4- 0 P rem ier L e a g ue w i n over Bournemouth, but he will not be considered for Wednesday’s League Cup tie at Swansea Cit y.
Seluk had said: “If he [Guardiola] wins the Champions League for City this season, then I will travel to England and I will say on television that Pep Guardiola is the best manager in the world.
“But i f Cit y don’t win t he Cha mpions L eag ue, t hen I hope t hat Pep has got t he balls to say that he was wrong to humiliate a g reat player like Yaya.”
In response to Guardiola’s remarks on Tuesday, Seluk said he would only apologise if the City manager said sorry to both his predecessor Manuel Pellegrini and outcast goalkeeper Joe Hart.
“I will apologise to Guardiola if he will apologise to Pellegrini for what he did to him,” Seluk told Sky Sports News.
“If you are a gentleman, this just does not happen. He signed a new contract last year then he gets pushed out for Guardiola to come in. Pellegrini was a gentleman.
“Guardiola also needs to apologise to Joe Hart.”
Toure, who is in the final year of his contract at the Etihad Stadium, has featured just once for City since Guardiola’s arrival.
Guardiola said that, as a player at Barcelona in the early 1990s, he would never have dared to allow his agent to speak out against Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, then the club’s manager.
“I cannot imagine in my day when a player’s agent would go to t he media a nd spea k a ga i nst Joha n Cr uy f f,” he said.