Manchester City: Will Yaya Toure actually spend the entire year in exile?

Yaya Toure is almost non-existent at Manchester City, unless his agent is speaking. Could the Ivorian actually spend the entirety of his final season at City in exile?

Yaya Toure was expected to leave Manchester City in the summer once Pep Guardiola arrived. However, that didn’t happen. Toure has one year left on his City contract, but is the midfielder now about to spend that entire year in the stands?

Toure’s agent, Dimitri Seluk, hasn’t helped matters. Not for City and Guardiola, and not for his client either. After his recent tirade at Guardiola and the club, Toure is now completely in the shadows at the Etihad Stadium.

But what would have happened had Seluk said nothing? Or even apologized for his previous comments as Guardiola asked? Could Toure have forced his way in to the City boss’ plans? Is he even that motivated to do so anyway?

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This is a critical year for Yaya Toure. He needs to impress if he wants to secure a move to another top European club for next season. The signs of decline have been there for a while. Technically, he can still get it done in a talented midfield like City’s.

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But physically the 33-year-old just doesn’t have the work rate or intensity necessary when the team is out of possession. The last two seasons in particular saw City exposed in midfield with Toure struggling to cover the ground.

Counter attacks in particular took advantage of Toure’s lack of mobility. His range of passing with the ball at his feet remains intact. He can still control a game when he has the ball with his intelligence and ability to keep possession.

This season, Guardiola has used David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne in central midfield areas. Maybe Toure could have received some game time this year playing as a backup for either of those two? In lesser games, at least.

Fabian Delph, Fernando and Ilkay Gundogan are all totally different players to what Toure is, was or is likely to now be. But Toure may now never get the chance to show whether he could have contributed in another way to Guardiola’s City.

Toure has not even made the bench for a single Premier League game this season under the Spaniard. He was also left out of the club’s Champions League squad. Now young players like Aleix Garcia are appearing on the bench – and the pitch – ahead of him.

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Wherever Toure started the season in the pecking order, he’s even further down it in now. Was that the road he was heading down already or has his agent pushed him down it? It’s a sad way for one of City’s greatest ever players to go out, if Toure does indeed spend all season on the sidelines.

But the mix of a loud-mouth agent and Guardiola’s high standards means it’s looking like a real possibility.

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