We saw all this played out with Tevez & Joorabchian.
It was almost always around a big game, or a key moment in the season. It's supposed to disrupt the dressing room and scare the club into giving in to his demands. (I remember about an hour after we beat West Ham to go top in 2011, Joorabchian released a statement: "Carlos is very unhappy..." )
This is Yaya's last big contract and Seluk wants a huge one. The easiest place would be with City, but really he doesn't care which country he has to move Yaya to to get it.
He knew it was 50/50 at best before the Guardiola announcement, and he figures the chances are virtually none once Guardiola arrives. So he's spent the last 3 months pushing the club as hard as he can, issuing ultimatums through the press, changing his story every 2 mins about why Yaya wants to leave or stay (I thought Joorbachian was scum, but even he never used a player's deceased family member as a reason).
Obviously the club have ignored him, and are close to, or maybe have confirmed Gundogan already, so this prick has nowhere else to go except back to the press.
We can discuss Yaya's role in all this, but we'll never truly know. Like Tevez, his agent is like family, so there's no way he's not fully aware of what's happening. But maybe he's also incredibly embarrassed by the stuff Seluk comes out with, but Seluk tells him this is the best way to negotiate, we'll never know.
What we do know is how much has changed since Toure signed his first deal. Whether Txiki really said we were a 'shit' club then or not, the truth is that in 2008-9 we needed players like Tevez & Toure, whatever baggage came with them. We simply couldn't force ourselves into the closed shop of the elite without players of that level, and the players they helped to attract.
And maybe if those two players didn't have such greedy tw*ts as agents, they might have accepted the situations they were both in at United & Barcelona at the time, and we wouldn't have got them in the first place. So in a funny kind of way, we have to be thankful for these utter wankers.
But, just like with Tevez, for the club it seems that enough is now enough.
Yaya will always be a legend to me, the first FA cup win under Mancini, the league cup wins, the Newcastle game in 2012, the 20 goals in 2013-14, his total midfield dominance of derbies from 2011-2014, and THAT semi final goal. (I can still it see rolling past Van de Sar..)
He is a legend, a big game player, who helped us establish ourselves and will hopefully help us make history on Tuesday. Then him and his tw*t of an agent can leave, with our thanks.
And by the way, those of us who were at this season's FA cup game at Stamford Bridge (despite the score) might have something to say about Seluk's claim that: "The experiment to turn City into another Barcelona will fail."
Most successful English club of the last 5 years, one the greatest managers in history about to take over, generations of incredibly talented young players coming through, an unlimited transfer budget for the senior team, the best youth facilities in the world...
You sure about that Dimitri?
