YAYA IS A CITY STICKER!
Toure praises Guardiola for helping him to turn season around after spell on naughty step
AS unlikely reconciliations go, Pep Guardiola and Yaya Toure is surely one of the more surprising.
Having been one of the most important players in City’s history, Toure became an outcast once Guardiola arrived, with seemingly little hope of playing again — but now he seems an integral part of the Catalan’s squad.
Having been persona non grata, partly because of fitness issues but principally because his agent, Dimitri Seluk, had made so many derogatory statements about Guardiola that the manager deemed the player responsible, Toure was not even included in Manchester City’s Champions League squad and played just one match until late November.
But following Toure’s public apology for his agent’s statement, he has played in all 10 Manchester City games for which he was eligible, starting the last six.
He is back in the Champions League squad and Guardiola is considering him for next season’s plans, even if it is clear that the City squad will undergo major surgery in the summer.
It has all been enough for Toure even to speak fondly of his boss, who managed him at Barcelona but from whom he seemed estranged.
When asked who had helped him through his exile, Toure namechecked Guardiola. Tough love, it seems, pays.
‘All my team-mates helped, as well the coach, because everything has a plan,’ said Toure. ‘The manager knows me from Barcelona and he knows what I’m capable of doing.
‘He knew what level of physicality I have to have to play a full game. I have been an important player here and, of course, when I was out, there was a lot of conversation about me.
‘For me, it was always very, very important to come back to show my team-mates, to show the manager that I could come back and help the team again.
‘Of course, it’s very good when we win and we have to have some important players like me, like Vinny (Kompany) or some of the lads who can push the other lads coming up, because City has always been a team which wants to play in the top three.
‘I’m used to being the guy who is always positive. Sometimes the hardest moment in your life can make you grow.
‘I have been in a difficult situation before. All I want is to bring the sort of football that helps my team-mates and entertains the fans — and to make myself proud as well.’
For Guardiola’s part, there were warmer words than ever before. Contracts will not be decided now but what is undeniable in the last six games is that Toure offers a robustness and Premier League know-how to City.
‘In the first part of the season Yaya wasn’t in the squad, because of physical reasons and we all know second part why he didn’t play,’ said the manager. ‘But, of course, he now deserves to be in the Champions League squad in the next round.
‘We will talk about contracts at the end of the season. I know Yaya. I was with him in Barcelona. He hasn’t surprised me. I judge players on whether they are able to go to Anfield, Old Trafford, the Nou Camp, or Madrid or Turin and if they are able to react. There is no doubt about Yaya with that.
‘That is the most precious and valued way I judge a player and with Yaya I know it doesn’t matter where he plays.
‘The best players go to the biggest stadiums against the best teams in quarter-finals and semi-finals of big competitions or the Premier League and they react.
‘Yaya’s personality is huge in those terms. But I knew that. I knew it in Barcelona and I knew it in the beginning here.’
Toure is circumspect about the prospect. ‘We don’t talk about the future,’ he said. ‘The future is still at City at the moment. I have a couple of months and it’s more important to concentrate on that.’
Against the highest-quality teams, such as Liverpool on New Year’s Eve, he may struggle at times. But for most of the current run of five wins in six games, Toure has been a driving force. And Guardiola’s description of him as a big-game player suggests there is a case for keeping him, though the £230,000-aweek salary will be a stumbling block for a 33-year-old; not least when Chinese clubs might offer almost double that for a free agent.
For now there is a league title to chase down, starting at Everton today.
Toure added: ‘This is a big club. It has brought in one of the best managers in the world, as well as top players.
‘With Tottenham’s win against Chelsea, everything is open. Catching Chelsea will be difficult because they have the advantage of playing only one game a week. But what we have to do is have a perfect second half of the season.’
As for Guardiola, it is clear that the Toure issue will be just one which preoccupies him in the summer. Jesus Navas, Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy, Bacary Sagna and Willy Cabellero are also all out of contract at the end of the season. Guardiola’s confidant, Marti Perarnau, who wrote the book Pep Evolution with the City manager, revealed that the incoming manager was alarmed at the age of the squad he inherited. More than half the players were over 30, 17 being 28 or older and four aged 25 or younger.
And although John Stones, Jesus and Leroy Sane have been signed since, City are likely to bring in two younger full-backs, another centrehalf and a wide player next summer.
They also have to deal with Joe Hart, Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony and Eliaquim Mangala, who are on loan but none of whom seemingly have a future at the club.
Yet Guardiola publicly refuses to give up on the old guard, who, he says, deserve respect.
‘Those players have to play every single game for themselves, their families and for the team,’ he said of the out-of-contract players.
‘But they are so professional that we can decide in the next months.’