City slicker: Yaya Toure will join the Eastlands
revolution after the World Cup
Manchester City have agreed a £28million deal to sign
Barcelona’s Yaya Toure, making him the most expensive holding
midfielder in English football history. Toure will join his
brother, Kolo, in Manchester when the pair return from World Cup
duty with Ivory Coast. Here, PETE JENSON
explains why City are splashing out so much to sign him.
So why do Manchester City want
such an expensive midfielder?
Well, he is the first-choice holding midfielder for the best
footballing team on the planet. Or at least he was two seasons ago
when Barcelona became the first team ever to win the treble in
Spain. Last season he lost his place to Spain international Sergio
Busquets.
City are actually spending £28m
on someone’s ‘reserve’ holding midfielder?
The reserve thing shouldn’t worry City fans. Toure never
deserved to lose his place. He was superb the year they won
everything but at Barcelona whenever it is a close call between two
players, and one happens to be Catalan, the other one always loses
out. Busquets’ father, Carles, played in goal for Barcelona and
would have shared a dressing room with current Barca coach Pep
Guardiola. Now Busquets Jnr is the apple of Pep’s eye and Toure has
suffered.
Has Toure only ever lost his
place because of favouritism?
Well, mainly. Guardiola also thinks Toure is a little bit
undisciplined. He does tend to go off on mazy little runs sometimes
that in the coach’s eyes drag the team out of shape. Although one
such run ended in a Ricky Villa-style wonder goal in January 2009
against Mallorca.
And will the fans miss
him?
Most definitely. Fan polls are big in Spain and club presidents
usually pay attention to them. All the votes regarding Toure have
been 70 per cent in favour of him staying.
So why is no one listening this
time?
If new president Sandro Rosell sells Toure to pay for the
signing of Cesc Fabregas then nobody will complain.
OK, so Manchester City fans can
look forward to seeing a pretty good holding midfielder who
sometimes scores special goals, but £28m still seems like an awful
lot of money. Does he do anything else?
Despite the sterling performances in midfield, Toure’s finest
hour for Barcelona actually came in the Champions League final
against Manchester United in 2009 when he was playing at centre
half. He also played the league run-in and the Spanish cup final in
defence and was outstanding in that final against Cristiano
Ronaldo.
Job done: Yaya starred for Barcelona at centre-half
in the Champions League final against Manchester United
Problem solved. Why didn’t he
continue playing there, allowing Guardiola to bring in his golden
boy Busquets?
Good question. One of the mysteries of last season was why,
having played so well in that position against such tough
opposition and in the biggest domestic game in world football,
Toure never played there again. Barcelona love nothing more than a
central defender who is comfortable on the ball. Maybe it comes
back to Guardiola believing that Toure just lacks discipline, but
that was certainly not the case in the Champions League final
against Ronaldo.
But there could be two Toures
in the centre of Manchester City’s defence next season?
Not necessarily. When he was presented at Barcelona his wife
insisted the name on his shirt be Yaya and not Toure. But yes, he
could play at the back for City alongside his brother, no question
about it.
Brotherly love: Kolo (right) is already at City and
will no doubt be talking up the club to his brother on
international duty
And will he be a good boy for
City off the pitch as well as on it?
He is a model professional but ‘beware the agent’. Barcelona
hate players with, shall we say, talkative representatives. Zlatan
Ibrahimovic’s agent has done his player no favours recently by
saying that ‘Guardiola should be put in a mental institution for
not picking him’ and Toure’s man, Dimitri Seluk, was talking up a
new contract one year into the player’s original deal and then
started saying he would be leaving because he wasn’t happy about
not being picked. But apart from the lively agent, he is a class
act who has had a rough deal at the Nou Camp.
Just one more question — didn’t
Arsene Wenger once reject him because he was too slow?
Wenger did give him a trial in 2003 in a friendly against
Barnet. But afterwards he was more interested in signing a certain
AS Cannes left back, Gael Clichy, who also played in that game. It
didn’t do Toure’s cause much good that he played up front and
missed a sitter. As for his pace, he is not the quickest but it is
not a real problem. Guardiola once described him as a ‘diesel
player’ — in other words, fine once he gets warmed up and also very
powerful.
