• Premier League

Toure will stay if he's offered coaching role, claims agent

Yaya Toure played a vital role in Manchester City's title-winning campaign © Getty Images

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Yaya Toure's agent has added a fresh twist to the midfielder's birthday row farce, claiming a future coaching role at the club would convince him to stay.

Dimitry Seluk and his client have endured ridicule after saying the midfielder was unhappy after the club did not celebrate his birthday sufficiently.

The agent has insisted throughout a saga sparked by the bizarre claims that money was not the driving force for Toure considering a move away from the Etihad and today he said the offer of a coaching role would settle the issue for the 31-year-old.

Seluk said Toure wants to stay at the "same club for as long as possible" and get similar treatment to that Real Madrid gave Zinedine Zidane, who became an advisor and coach at the club after ending his playing career with the Spanish giants. "It gives a message - 'we like you and you're with us forever'," Seluk said.

"Zidane played then after that he started working for the club. Yaya needs the club in the future. We don't want any more pounds, not a longer contract, nothing like this, only really attention.

"More attention (paid) to Yaya and Yaya must feel happy at the club - that's the main thing. I'll tell you one more time, we don't need one more pound in the contract."

Seluk had said Toure was ready to leave City because the club's owners showed him a lack of respect on his 31st birthday by not shaking his hand on the squad's arrival in the United Arab Emirates this week.

City presented Toure with a birthday cake and also tweeted a message, but Seluk claimed his client was still unhappy because he was not a central figure in events staged by the club at the start of the trip.

The Ivory Coast international initially played down the row, but later backtracked by and offered support for his agent's claims, saying: "Everything Dimitri said is true. He speaks for me. I will explain after the World Cup."

ESPN have learned that City are unprepared to contemplate the sale of Toure, whom they signed from Barcelona for £24 million in 2010, or give him a new contract after granting him a £200,000-a-week deal only last year.

But with the noises from Barca - the club Toure would apparently be keen to rejoin - suggesting a return to the Spanish club is unlikely, City are reportedly to hold talks with their goalscoring midfielder in a bid to placate him.

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