Yaya Toure will not play for Manchester City again until Pep Guardiola receives an apology for comments made by his agent.
The City boss is unhappy with remarks from Toure's adviser Dimitri Seluk, who said the Ivory Coast midfielder was "humiliating a great player."
"It
was so difficult for me to put [Toure] out in the Champions League --
so difficult," Guardiola told a news conference. "I know him, I know
he's a good guy, but it was difficult for me as well to put Aleix Garcia
out, [they are] the only two players that are out, because the list is
the list.
"But the day after his agent spoke -- in that moment --
Yaya is out. Until Mr. Dmitri Seluk comes back in the press conference,
or his friends in the media, he has the courage to call me, go to the
media and say an apology to Manchester City, the first one, the second
one is his teammates and after the trainer.
"When that happens
Yaya will be part of the group and he will have the same chance to play
all the games. Because I cannot accept as a coach, every manager when
his player doesn't play goes to the media and speak and speak and speak.
It depends."
Toure has made only one appearance for City this
season -- the Champions League playoff second leg against Steaua
Bucharest -- and has not featured in the matchday squad for the seven
other City fixtures.
The 33-year-old was also left out of
Guardiola's Champions League squad -- along with Spanish youngster Aleix
Garcia, who has been on the bench for City's last two Premier League
games and made his debut in the 4-0 win over Bournemouth at the weekend.
And Guardiola said Toure, who retired from international football on Tuesday, will not come into contention for Wednesday's EFL Cup clash with Swansea City at the Etihad.
"I know how Dmitri Seluk loves Yaya Toure, if he loves me, show me
and make [an apology] to Manchester City [for] what he did in the
[media]," he said.
"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.
"Maybe it's a new era
now, the new period changing, but I'm an old guy. I am old generation,
and old generation managers has to make his players his job and trainers
his job, and today the managers believe they are more than they are.
"If
he has a problem call [director of football] Txiki Begiristain, the
club, and they can talk, until he doesn't speak, Yaya is not going to
play."
Toure missed three days of training last week with a migraine but this week has rejoined the first-team squad.
But Guardiola will not consider him following the comments from Seluk to the Sunday Mirror in September.
Seluk
said: "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."

No comments:
Post a Comment
Drop a comment and share your views with the world