Yaya Toure backed his agent’s bizarre comments regarding Manchester City’s treatment of the Ivorian’s birthday, and reports are emerging of Monday comments from the midfielder that seemed to endorse the potential for his City departure.
Toure’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, publicly complained Monday that Manchester City did not honor the player properly on his birthday, that they didn’t shake his hand or give him a present. The agent said, “Some clubs send flowers to families... maybe at Man City they don’t know what this is.”
Side note: If Man City doesn’t know how to send flowers, they’ve got bigger problems than Toure.
And the player may have let his agent’s true intentions out of the bag earlier that day. Speaking hours before his agent’s comments hit the media, Toure told BeIN Sports that his tremendous season had his future “open.”
From the BBC:Asked if he could be playing for another club, he replied: “Yes. We never know in football. We never know.”
In an interview with global broadcaster beIN SPORTS, given on Monday before Seluk’s comments had reached the public, the Ivory Coast star added: “Because of the brilliant season Man City have had, everybody is talking about me and everything is open.
“My agent, Dimitri, is always on the phone and he knows what he has to do because I trust him a lot.
“We don’t know tomorrow, but my focus is on the World Cup and at the end of the World Cup we will see what happens.”
Manchester City are understood to be relaxed about the situation and have no intention of selling or even listening to offers for a player who still has three years left on a contract he signed in April 2013.
All this before The Sun posted this salacious cover quote: “
Despite his age of 31, Toure would command a ton of money on the market. There’s no question the midfielder, who signed a three-year extension last year, was one of the best -- if not the best -- player in the Premier League last season. And transfers happen all the time... it’s just that these tactics from Toure’s camp seem a little bizarre.