The war of
words between Manchester City and
Yaya Touré’s representative escalated on Tuesday when Pep Guardiola insisted
the midfielder will not play for the club again unless his agent apologises for
comments aimed at the manager following the Ivorian’s omission from the
Champions League squad.
Touré, who
played under Guardiola at Barcelona before being sold to City in 2010, was
surprisingly omitted from the 25-man squad earlier this month and has yet to
feature for the club this season. That led the outspoken Dimitri Seluk to
criticise the new manager, questioning whether Guardiola had “the balls to say
that he was wrong to humiliate a great player like Yaya” should City not win
the Champions League.
His words
provoked an angry response from Guardiola before Wednesday’s EFL third round
tie against Swansea, with the manager adamant that Touré will not feature for
the club again unless Seluk retracts his statement.
“He must apologise to his team-mates, to the
club. If he doesn’t, he won’t play,” said the 45-year-old. “It was difficult to
leave him out of the Champions League squad but [the] day after, his [agent]
went to the media. He 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 García out.
“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.”
That request
was given short shrift by Seluk, however. Speaking to the Daily Miror he said: “If Pep Guardiola
wants a war, then he can have one. Pep didn’t like my opinion? But what does he
expect me to say when he does this to Yaya? I spoke out because I felt that Pep
was being vindictive to Yaya. Unfortunately for Pep, we live in a world where
you have the right to free speech. He has reacted to what I have said about him
by punishing Yaya again. But I’m not surprised.”
Seluk added:
“Pep doesn’t want players with personality. He only wants players who are
scared of him and will do what he says. The first thing he did when he arrived
at City was to pick a fight with Yaya and Joe Hart, two of the club’s biggest
players.
“Hart is
England’s goalkeeper; Yaya has won the African Footballer of the Year four
times. They have both been big personalities in the dressing room at City and
Guardiola doesn’t like that.
“When you
first go into someone’s house then you should treat them with respect. You
don’t go into someone’s house and ask them to leave. He was the same at
Barcelona.
“He forced
Samuel Eto’o to leave the club. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a player who cost
£57million, was sold for just £18m. It has to always be about Pep
Guardiola, no-one else.”
Seluk later
added to Sky Sports News: “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. If you are a gentleman this just does not happen.
“He signed a
new contract last year then he gets pushed out for Guardiola to come in.
Pellegrini was a gentleman. Guardiola also needs to apologise to Joe Hart. It’s
not right to come to England and then get rid of a few English players.
Guardiola wants a new future for Yaya, for Hart, and they won’t be the last.”
Asked again
whether he would apologise, Seluk finished: “Well, what do I need to apologise
for?”
In a
separate development, the Touré also decided to retire from international
football. The Ivory Coast international announced the decision in a lengthy
statement on his website.
“Writing this note was probably ‘the most
difficult match of my life’. After 14 years at the highest level, I’m sure this
is the right time for me,” Touré said. “The fact that I am 33 now, the
intensity of training and the multitude of games are not the reasons why I am
making this decision. Football is everything to me and it gave me so much in my
career that I no longer feel able to set myself new goals as a player with the
Elephants of Ivory Coast.
“I can still
bring a lot to the players, to the youth of my country and to the African
continent and to the world. I would like to give the children what football has
given me. Football gave me a lot. It taught me many things, things of life.
This is one of the most important lessons in my life.”
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