IAN LADYMAN: Yaya Toure, that great Ivorian footballer, wants to coach and is working with age-group teams at Tottenham. It is thought the club will soon announce his arrival.
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IAN LADYMAN: With Yaya Toure on the verge of becoming a Tottenham coach full-time, it's high time he said sorry to Pep Guardiola for accusing him of being racist, properly and in person
- Yaya Toure played under Pep Guardiola at Barcelona and Manchester City
- After leaving City, Toure claimed Guardiola had a problem with African players
- He has since admitted his mistake, but is yet to apologise in person to Guardiola
- Toure is currently working with Tottenham, and is set to take a full-time role
- Now is the time for him to reach out to Guardiola to try to make amends
By
IAN LADYMAN FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 22:42 BST, 3 April 2022 | UPDATED: 08:03 BST, 4 April 2022
Yaya Toure, that great Ivorian footballer, wants to coach and is working with age-group teams at
Tottenham. It is thought the club will soon announce his arrival on to the club's full-time staff.
Last week he spoke about it in an interview in The Times. But it was only a passing reference because as usual Toure ended up talking about
Pep Guardiola. As it usually does, it was this topic that made the headline.
'I would be delighted to see Pep again,' it said. In an interview with this paper last year the sell was similar: 'It was a mistake, I said sorry, I want peace.'
What Toure refers to is the fall-out from an interview with a French publication in 2018 in which he said: 'Pep did everything to spoil my last season (at Man City). He was cruel with m
'I asked myself if it was because of my colour. I'm not the first. Other Barca players asked the question too.
'Guardiola 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.
'He will never admit it. But the day he will line up a team in which we find five Africans, not naturalised, I promise I will send him a cake.'
So there we have it. Shortly after the end of his years working with a coach under whom he won seven significant trophies at Barcelona and City, Toure called Guardiola a racist.
Since then Toure, aged 38 now, has paid lip service to the issue. He has said the interview was a 'huge mistake'. He has said his words were 'twisted', but he never sued. It is commonly reported that he then wrote to Guardiola to apologise. What he actually did — by his own admission — is this.
'I emailed a letter to try to communicate with some important people at the club to apologise,' he told Sportsmail last April.
Not quite a personal apology to Guardiola, then. Instead, an email to Manchester City that he admits may or may not have passed beneath the manager's eyes. Not the same at all.
If he really is contrite — and he does seem to be — then why not call Guardiola? Or go to his house?
Toure's answer to that is that he does not have Guardiola's phone number.
Why not try to get it, then? Or call the club and ask to be put through? When Yaya Toure is on the line, he probably has a sporting chance of getting past even the most stubborn receptionist.
Maybe the truth is that Toure doesn't want to say sorry quite badly enough. Or maybe he does not quite appreciate the sheer depth and horror of what he said.
This was not a quip, an off the cuff comment delivered in anger. This was a five-paragraph attempt to destroy a man's reputation. We can only imagine what Guardiola felt when he learned of it.
These men were great together once. Toure was a superb, intelligent and powerful footballer. A rampaging midfielder in his pomp but also — one night in Rome in 2009 — an emergency central defender asked to plug a gap for Guardiola in a Champions League final against a Manchester United team that had Cristiano Ronaldo playing up front.
Toure was exceptional that night, as he was most of his career. With Guardiola he won that Champions League, two Spanish titles, a Spanish Cup and then a Premier League title in England.
Toure under Guardiola at City was different. He was not the same player by then, had a troublesome loudmouth agent and could not cope with the marginalisation that followed.
But what he said about the Catalan was grave and with that in mind his persistent and rather glib references to the matter serve only to make it all worse rather than better.
If Toure wants to apologise, he should do so. Properly and in person. If not then he should register the damage done and get on with his life.
TOTTENHAM beat Newcastle 5-1 on Sunday to boost their chances of securing Champions League qualification.
www.express.co.uk
Tottenham are primed to announce Yaya Toure becoming part of their full-time staff, according to reports. The former
Manchester City and
Barcelona star has been working with the club’s youth-team groups. And news of his promotion comes less than 24 hours after a stunning 5-1 win over
Newcastle saw them boost their chances of securing Champions League football.
Tottenham hired Toure back in December, with the former Ivory Coast midfielder since working with their youth teams.
And now, according to the
Daily Mail, he will soon be announced as becoming part of the club’s full-time staff.
Toure had a glittering career as a player, claiming trophies at Barcelona and City while establishing himself as one of the best players in world football.
And his expertise will be tapped into by Tottenham as they plan for a brighter future with Antonio Conte at the helm.
