It would seem Yaya Toure‘s days as a Manchester City player may be numbered after the midfielder suggested he “no longer belongs” at the Etihad Stadium.  

Speaking to French outlet Foot Mercato (via the Daily Telegraph‘s Mark Ogden) this week, the Ivory Coast international insisted money would not motivate him to remain somewhere he feels out of place:

Today, I am living the dream of thousands of little boys. I represent my continent, Africa, and that has no price. No amount of wages will make me stay at a club if I feel that I no longer belong there or if no challenge exists for me. It would be unjust on my part.

For the future, I don’t know more than you do, because I will always go where I am offered new challenges. That is in my nature. When things are not necessarily going well in a club, the key players take the fall. I am not the only one to have been attacked even if there is tendency to be harsher with me.

Football is my passion, my job and that gives me two good reasons to do as well as I can. I accept criticism if it helps me to improve and I ignore them when their aim is simply to break me.

Toure has encountered criticism this season after failing to reach the form of previous seasons, particularly as Manchester City’s Premier League title defence fell apart in the campaign’s latter half.

The 31-year-old goes on to talk of what this summer holds in store for him, with Ogden’s report insinuating Toure could be one of six senior players offloaded at the end of this season:

PSG is a great club who, I think, is not finished growing and also a big club where any great player can find a place for themselves and make a contribution. 

Mancini is a mentor for me, he is a special coach. It is no secret that I loved the time when he was boss here [at City]. But I have arrived at the point where I am more interested in the sporting challenge a club has to offer me than anything else.

I owe it to the City fans to fight just until the end of my career at this club, just as much as I owe it to myself and my continent. My decisions will not be affected by changes in management, but more by the challenges that will be offered to me.

One could debate whether Toure may hold a deeper passion for City had they managed to defend their Premier League crown with a little more vigour, but all signs currently point to the exit door.

At his age, the versatile playmaker is hardly at his peak, and this summer may have been considered the optimal time for the club to cash in on their player in any case.

Toure arrived at the Etihad from Barcelona in July 2010 and has regularly featured as one of the Premier League’s highest powers, nominated for two PFA Team of the Year selections in his four full seasons to date.

The Independent‘s Jack Pitt-Brooke recently jested that manager Manuel Pellegrini’s midfield does look like it could do with some fresh faces:

This wouldn’t be the first time Toure has been mentioned involving a move away, having last summer become closely associated with a transfer amid his infamous birthday cake mishap, per BBC Sport.

City’s shortcomings this season would appear to be the last straw for the star midfielder, however, with the wheels now set in motion geared toward executing his departure.

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