Manchester City’s summer plans were thrown into turmoil when the news surfaced that Yaya Toure was unhappy with the club over a lack of respect shown to him on his 31st birthday.
Toure was not impressed by the small celebrations that the club laid on including presenting him with a cake during the flight to Abu Dhabi.
If Toure was not so important to the team the club should offload a player that is showing such petulance.
However the circumstances are different when it involves a player of Toure’s calibre, City need to do all they can to ensure the player is happy with his position at the club.
If the Ivorian would like the club to give him a car for his birthday, the club should give him a car. If he would like a job for life with the Blues, he should be given a job for life with the Blues.
The only unacceptable position would be as manager, given Manuel Pellegrini has done an outstanding job in the role in his first season in English football securing the Citizens’ first ever league and cup double.
The midfielder joined City in the summer of 2010 signing from four-time European champions Barcelona for £24m and has gone onto score some of the most important goals in the club’s history.
In his first year with the club, Toure scored the only goal of the game in both the FA Cup semi-final against cross-town rivals Manchester United and then the final against Stoke, as the club celebrated their first major honour for 35 years.
During this past season Toure took his performances to a new level scoring more goals than he had ever done before in his career and became only the second midfielder in Premier League history to score more than 20 league goals in a campaign.
The three-time African footballer of the year is the best central midfielder in the world and would be irreplaceable should he want to leave the club.
His unhappiness at the Etihad has alerted the attention of every club in football from Chelsea to Colwyn Bay.
After his remarkable season it was shocking to see that both his peers in the Premier League and the football writers decided to overlook him during the end of season awards. It was a complete travesty that he did not even come second in the voting.
For a long duration during the season it appeared that the presence of summer signing Fernandinho was helping Toure catch all the headlines, while it was the Brazilian that was more integral to the performance of Pellegrini’s side.
However this was not the case when the midfielder was absent and City did not look like the same team.
Toure has a rare ability in that he is able to dictate the tempo of a game with his passing and ability to retain possession but can also dominate matches with his physical presence.
Often during a game there will be a moment when he takes off on what have now become his trademark marauding runs from midfield holding off defenders like he is playing against a local under 8s team.
A perfect example of this came in stoppage time against Aston Villa at the Etihad when he picked up the ball inside his own half swept aside a number of challenges and finished clinically past Brad Guzan.
It was an unbelievable run, from an unbelievable player who City can just not afford to lose.
One thing the club can learn from this experience is that the next time Joe Hart, Sergio Aguero or Vincent Kompany celebrate their birthdays City should make it an extravagant affair.
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