Midfield master has his say on Yaya and Raheem
KEVIN De Bruyne is never short of a dry quip and the City midfielder responded in his own way to Yaya Toure’s accusations about Pep Guardiola.
In a blistering attack, Toure claimed that the manager ‘has a problem with Africans’ and wondered aloud if his career under Guardiola had been curtailed because of the colour of his skin.
The club have not responded to the allegations and Guardiola had nothing to say on the matter when questioned at a golf tournament on Tuesday.
However, Belgium international De Bruyne was flummoxed by the idea and suggested Toure’s exclusion from the team last season was probably more down to fitness and effort.
“I never saw something,” De Bruyne said.
“So I don’t know what Yaya said or if it’s wrongly written or exaggerated. When you don’t play there’s always something you try to find. It’s very difficult.
“We had the best season ever, so in the end the coach took the right decision to play with the team who played a lot.
“At the end of the day, Yaya was the only one who signed a contract last year. [Guardiola] let a lot of players go. Yaya was the only one because he did well, so I don’t know.
“This year the trainer probably thought he [Yaya] wasn’t doing enough, maybe wasn’t fit enough. I’ve never seen something racist at the club, ever.”
De Bruyne, on Belgium duty as he readies himself for the World Cup, has also observed the headlines and chatter surrounding Raheem Sterling in the last fortnight.
The pair arrived at the Etihad in the summer of 2015 and have struck up a good connection on and off the pitch, and the Belgian does not recognise some of the details attributed to his team-mate. “Raheem is unbelievable,” he said. “When he plays for England I don’t know what goes on. There’s always criticism for Raheem – I don’t know why.
“He’s a very good guy, he’s one of my guys.
“We’ve been together since day one, we came together, we have a good chemistry and he’s only 23.
“I don’t know how many guys have that experience and showed that capability of playing at that age in the Premier League for that many years.
“Why do people talk about other people when they don’t even know why or for that reason?
“People are very quick to give criticism about somebody else without doing research and obviously social media is one of the bad things.
“Everybody has an opinion but it is very easy to give an opinion behind a keyboard. It’s just how it is these days.
“As a player, as a public figure, it’s not the easiest because you know whatever you do there can be something that’s wrong.”