Pep Guardiola made a peace offering to Yaya Toure on Tuesday. Kind of.
Toure has only featured in one game this season, and was left out of Manchester City’s Champions League squad. He appears to be in his final months with the club, and City are hardly missing his contribution so far this season, having won their opening five games.
Guardiola was asked about the player’s situation ahead of City’s game against Swansea in the League Cup, and said that he can return to the first-team squad if his agent apologises for remarks he made earlier this month.
Yaya Toure's Manchester City career appears to be over, and his agent isn't one bit happy https://t.co/ROTmhTxACP
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 6, 2016
“If City don’t win the Champions League then I hope that Pep has got the balls to say that he was wrong to humiliate a great player like Yaya,” Dimitri Seluk said.
Guardiola said on Tuesday that it was “difficult to leave him [Toure] out of the Champions League squad but [the] day after, his [agent] went to the media.”
“[Toure] has not had the courage to call me. From that moment he was out. I know him, I know he’s a good guy, but it was difficult for me as well to put Aleix Garcia out [of the Champions League squad].
“I cannot imagine in my period when I was a football player, my manager going to the media and speaking against Johan Cruyff, about this and about that. If he has a problem call the club, and they can talk, until he speaks, Yaya is not going to play.”
When asked to comment on Guardiola’s request by Sky Sports News, did Seluk apologise unreservedly, plead for his client to be restored to the City first-team and insist the whole episode was a misunderstanding?
No, of course he didn’t, he hit back, saying: “Guardiola wins a few games and thinks he’s king. I live in Europe so I can say what I like and Guardiola can’t stop me.”
“I will apologise to Guardiola if he will apologise to Manuel Pellegrini for what he did to him.”
Toure announced his retirement from international football on Tuesday, and his agent appears to have ensured he’ll never play for City again.
