Manchester City’s Ivory Coast international Yaya Toure has seemingly performed a dramatic u-turn on his prior position, telling the press that he wants to stay at the Etihad Stadium next season, as reported by the Daily Mail.
While he did not apologise for requesting a transfer as a result of a series of unfortunate circumstances, his new position is miles from that he took up several months ago, when he declared a desire to depart having felt the club had not paid him enough respect on his birthday.
In May, agent Dimitry Seluk said that the Premier League champions hadn’t done enough to celebrate Toure at a title celebration held in Abu Dhabi, which was attended by City’s rarely seen owner Sheikh Mansour.
It seemed inevitable that he would depart this summer, given the extent to which the club and player’s relationship had deteriorated, but Toure is now implying that he is happy to remain at the club for the foreseeable future.
He said: “It was not a case of me wanting to leave the club. I stayed quiet and at the end of the day it’s my decision. I will stay at Manchester City for as long as possible.
“The matter is closed now. The most important thing was to try to focus again. Now I’m very happy to join the team and the manager. Everyone is very positive.
“This year is going to be fantastic. We’ve got some fantastic players coming in and important players are staying. If you want to be the best you need to win every trophy possible, and the Champions League is a target this year.
“We know we are the team to beat. This year will be amazing because I’m expecting something – I’m expecting trophies this year.”
