Ivory Coast midfielder Yaya Toure has accused Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola of having “problems with Africans” in an explosive interview with France Football.
The full interview is set to be published tomorrow, Tuesday, but Toure has pulled no punches in his assessment of Guardiola's reign:
He insists he has no problems with black players, because he is too intelligent to be caught out. But when you realise that he has problems with Africans, wherever he goes, I ask myself questions. I’m not the first to talk of these differences in treatment. At Barcelona I know that some also asked questions.
Last summer, when Pep brutally got rid of (Wilfried) Bony, who had been signed a year earlier for a huge sum, I asked questions.
The 35-year-old went on to claim 'I want to destroy the Pep myth.' His only Premier League start of the season came on the final day against Brighton, and Toure believes he was frozen out as part of a revenge plot.
I think I was dealing with someone who just wanted revenge on me. I do not know why but I have the impression that he was jealous of me, that he took me for a rival. There you have it. We always looked at each other weirdly. He was spinning around me without saying anything, watching me, gauging me, but not talking to me. Yet he knows that I speak Catalan, Spanish and English. It should be enough to communicate both. But apparently no ... Every time we passed each other, he seemed embarrassed. As if I made him a little self-conscious. As if, also, he had understood that I knew him perfectly.
In honour of his stint at the club, the main training pitch was named after Toure but he stills feels like the manager ruined his farewell: "I would have liked to leave with emotion of this club as could [Andrés] Iniesta or [Gianluigi] Buffon. But Pep prevented me." Toure is now a free agent and is yet to confirm his next destination.
You can read the first part of the interview here.
