I’m not quite sure what goes on in football agents heads sometimes. Over the past few days Yaya Toure’s agent Dimitri Seluk has came out and suggested that his client is far from happy at Manchester City?

Why?

Well we are assured its not money related as Yaya earns a reported £220k a week and that deal was only signed last summer. (Don’t be surprised if he wants an even bigger deal)

No we are told the real reason for the discontent is all down to respect or what the Ivorian sees as a lack of respect.

According to Mr Seluk, his man has been left feeling very hurt and unhappy because no senior official at the club offered Toure a congratulations on his birthday.

Are you kidding me? That is his main gripe?

See as long as they are paying you that substantial wage and are not illegally harming you then I suggest Yaya should man up and get on with his job. As his agent, Dimitri Seluk should be advising his client not to let such trivial matters bother him.

But instead of doing that Seluk makes ridiculous statements like the one below…

“He got a cake but when it was Roberto Carlos’s birthday the president of Anzhi gave him a Bugatti, I don’t expect City to present Maya with a Bugatti; we only asked that they shook his hand and said: ‘We congratulate you.’ It is the minimum they must do when it is his birthday and the squad is all together.”

Ok let me dissect this statement.

Yaya got a cake. That to me is a signal that the club as a whole wished him a happy birthday. He also got a tweet from the official Man City twitter account, showing the whole world they congratulate the player and appreciate the midfielder.

Oh look Roberto Carlos got a fancy, expensive car. Now that says more about the misspending at Anzhi rather than City not caring about Toure. Bringing that into the argument also gets the ordinary fans backs up as they have to live in the real world. Why would an agent alienate a player from his fans? It makes no sense, unless they have an ulterior motive or just don’t care about the fans. That to me is more disrespectful than anything they have accused the Man City owners of doing or not doing.

The minimum they must do is shake his hand and wish him a happy birthday? Really? In what planet does an employee make such demands to an employer? Especially an employer who pays you so much, just to play football. Its disgusting to think some people can be so far removed from reality.

I was born a year and two days after Yaya Toure. I don’t get paid anywhere near £220k a week, then again I am no where near as good at football as he is. At any big workplace I have worked in like Marks and Spencers, I never got a congratulations from Sir Stuart Rose or even my store manager. I thought I was a very good worker in the Sauchiehall street shop, yet I didn’t even get a cake. Did I care? Nope. Did I expect more? Nope. Its a huge business and they paid my wages without fail. That is what an employer (of a huge business) usually does. Not buy cars or offer heartfelt congrats. They probably don’t have a clue when Yaya’s birthday is, but why should they?

Another Seluk quote…

“The club’s owners ate a 100kg cake after winning the Premier League this season but when they and the players were all together, none of them shook his hand on his birthday. It shows they don’t care about him.”

They didn’t shake his hand so they don’t care about him? I disagree with that statement, as long as he gets his wages every week plus his substantial bonuses then they very much care about the player.

The whole saga has been childishly handled by Toure and Seluk. As an agent Seluk has a duty to warn players about the consequences of their actions and about bad press. Yet in this case its the agent that brought everything out into the open. By suggesting Toure may leave in the summer that could work against them as that might be seen as breaching that huge contract but lets face it City won’t fine one of their star players over this kind of thing.

We’ve had media suggestions that the African player of the year believes that the clubs owners prefer Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and David Silva to him. This is football, people have favourites. As a grown man, Yaya needs to get over these jealousy issues. I am beginning to think Toure’s mother preferred Kolo to Yaya. Hell she probably prefers Francois the used car salesman to Yaya if he acts like a big baby all the time!

The player himself originally tried to distance himself from his advisors comments and then (probably after a call for Seluk) he came out and said it was all true and it would be sorted after the World Cup. That’s nice of Yaya to sort himself out and have no distractions yet leave his clubs fans sweating for the next two months. Again I’d suggest respect works two ways and that Toure and his agent have shown the Man City faithful no love or respect this week.

But Man City can just hang on and let Toure stew for a few months. As he is only one year into a four year deal, the player can’t buy out his deal. So its not down to him or his outspoken agent when he leaves the Etihad Stadium. He would need to wait another season before walking out and would then need to pay for the privilege. By that time he’ll be thirty-two and might not be worth as much in terms of a weekly wage.

The whole issue leaves me feeling cold. I think Yaya Toure is a fantastic footballer but on this occasion he has listened to the wrong people, has been ill advised or is too touchy about things that shouldn’t really matter.

Grow up and get on with it Yaya!

Posted on May 21st, 2014 by scott
Filed under: Article