Toure must take pay cut to stay at City
Manchester City are likely to offer Yaya Touré a new 12-month contract as Pep Guardiola tries to avoid the loss of too many experienced players this summer, although the Ivory Coast midfielder will have to take a pay cut to stay.
With Pablo Zabaleta due to join West Ham United after City confirmed over the weekend that their long-serving right-back will leave the club after nine years when his contract expires next month, and doubts persisting over the future of striker Sergio Agüero, Guardiola is understood to want to keep Touré for another season.
Touré celebrated his 34th birthday on Saturday by helping City to a win over Leicester that kept the club firmly on course for a top-four finish. All this after Riyad Mahrez’s 77th-minute penalty was ruled out when the Algerian was correctly judged to have touched the ball twice as he slipped while shooting.
The prospect of Touré staying would mark a dramatic turn of events given that the midfielder appeared to have little future under Guardiola after being exiled during the opening months of the season following a spat between the manager and the player’s agent, Dimitri Seluk.
Yet Touré has been one of City’s standout performers in a largely dismal debut season for Guardiola since he was brought back in from the cold in November, even if the likelihood is the player would have to accept a substantial cut to his £210,000-a-week wages in order to extend his seven-year association with the club.
Touré’s maturity and professionalism was reflected in the way he bowed to a request from Gabriel Jesus to take the penalty that put City 2-0 in front and his subsequent embrace of the young Brazil striker after he scored.
“I love it when players have the personality to take a decision on the pitch,” the City manager said. “I like it when someone says, ‘ No, do it like this.’ Maybe Yaya was not confident but I don’t think so because to Yaya, the pressure is nothing. For him, it does not exist.”
City have been heavily dependent on the nucleus of the side who won league titles in 2012 and 2014 and Vincent Kompany – who will also be staying after doubts about his own future – believes it is imperative the club sign players with an uncompromising streak, for which Zabaleta was renowned.
Guardiola gave short shrift to claims by Gary Neville, the former Manchester United captain, last week that City need to be tougher if they are serious about challenging for the title next season. But after
City almost threw away a 2-0 lead against Leicester, for whom Shinji Okazaki scored a sublime volley, Kompany echoed Neville’s sentiments about the need for resilience.
“I think that is what we have mentioned in previous weeks,” the City captain said. “We have dominated a lot of games, we have a lot of possession and our performances were good but I reckon for the future we need to take some of that hardness, some of that passion, into whatever this team will be in the future. That is what the fans will always want to see at City. So take a little bit of Zabaleta and add him to the talent we have and we will have a really good team.”
City will guarantee a top-four finish tomorrow if Arsenal drop points against Sunderland and they beat West Bromwich Albion at the Etihad Stadium, when Zabaleta will be given ana emotional send-off after the match.m
“It’s somethings that I’m prepared for and I will try to enjoy it likelik a kid of 10 years old,” Zabaleta said.
The pressurep on that game for City would have been even greater hadh referee Bobby Madley not spotted the infringement by Mahrez when he had the chancecha to equalise for Leicester from the penalty spot after bei being tripped by Gaël Clichy. AntoineAn Griezmann also touched the ball twice against Real MadridMa in the Champions League last week but the Atlético MadridM striker’s penalty was all allowed to stand and Craig ShakespeareShakes admitted the inconsistenciesinconsi were infuriating.
“I haven’tha seen the Griezmann one,”on the acting Leicester manager said. “But the lads in the dressing-roomdressi were comparing it after the game.”