Make no mistake about it, Yaya Toure is a Manchester City legend. A genuine world star, he was at times almost single-handedly responsible as the club turned from plucky underdogs into challengers at the very top of the food chain.
A remarkable player, clearly, but this situation is a shame. Dimitri Seluk’s latest explosion has once again dented Toure's reputation and standing with Manchester City fans - and if we’re being honest, it’s probably his own fault.
For two or three years now, despite his frequent brilliance, there have been numerous ‘outbursts’ that have marred his public perception, both from himself and his agent. At some point you have to wonder where the buck stops, and it stops at Yaya Toure.
He’s a grown man, an adult - one who employees Dimitri Seluk as his official mouthpiece. His frequent attacks and insults directed at both City officials and club itself are totally and utterly out of order, and it’s Yaya’s role to either publicly castigate these attacks, furthering himself from them at very least, or take more drastic action and sever his ties with Seluk.
The latter seems unlikely given his affinity towards his agent, with his son actually named after Seluk. There’s a strong, if baffling bond between the two and it feels for now that there may be a unwelcome radio silence from Toure’s camp as he considers his next course of action.
Yaya Toure's agent might be better off shutting his cake-hole.
Guardiola was right to retalliate. In truth, this should’ve been nipped in the bud years ago when the first signs of his tempestuous personality first started to rear its head, but it wasn’t, and Pep isn’t a man to take any risk of a disruption in the squad’s harmony lightly. It’s exactly how it should be, with no individual bigger than the club.
Yaya Toure will rightly remain a Manchester City legend, but it falls squarely at his feet now to deal with this and rescue his floundering reputation - it’s the least he can do if he can’t rescue his place in the squad anymore.
If he does, then great. If not, it’ll be a shame as a man of his immense ability, one that provided us with countless unrivalled moments of excellence, should be remembered for what he did off the pitch rather than on it.
As it currently stands we could look back and remember Seluk’s influence and immaturity with a far greater clarity than Toure deserves.